Why did Giovanni Verga create a new vocabulary for writing about poverty in southern Italy?

Giovanni Verga, a leading figure of the verismo (realism) movement, adopted a direct and unadorned linguistic approach to achieve the objective presentation of life among the lower classes in Sicily.1

His commitment to this style was rooted in the movement's core philosophy: the desire to create a work of art so sincere and realistic that the author’s presence would be invisible, making the narrative appear to mature spontaneously. By utilizing terse accuracy and realistic dialogue, Verga aimed to immerse the reader in the unfamiliar milieu of poor peasants and fishermen, allowing them to piece together the story through the natural flow of gossip and chance remarks, much as one would in real life. This method was a deliberate departure from the sentimental Romanticism of the era, prioritizing documentary exactitude and the honest depiction of social and economic struggles over noble sentiments or authorial intervention.23