Francesco Muzzioli

Interview

• "Art and new technologies: reflections on the relationship between the avant-garde and communication" (Rome, 04/06/97)

Biography

Francesco Muzzioli was born in Rome 17th January 1949. He graduated in literature at the University of Rome "La Sapienza" in 1971, with a thesis on experimental Italian poetry. He has worked at "La Sapienza" since 1971 in the Italian Department and for a long period has taught in the field of modern and contemporary Italian literature, most recently on the theory of literature.

His research has developed on two levels: on the one hand the comparison of theoretical positions, with particular emphasis on methodological debates and, in recent years, on the problem of postmodernism and the new means of communication; on the other hand current developments in literature and a re-examination of twentieth century literature, with the aim of identifying and evaluating elements of the avant-garde, experimentalism and alternative writing.

In the early seventies he became part of the editorial group of the " Quaderni di critica" (together with Filippo Bettini, Marcello Carlino, Aldo Mastropasqua and Giorgio Patrizi),contributing to the publication of the first issue in 1973 (Sulla neoavanguardia) and to the book published by Savelli: Marxismo e strutturalismo nella critica letteraria italiana (1974); L'alternativa letteraria del 900: Gadda (1975); Teorie letterarie nella Scuola di Francoforte (1976). In 1981, he and the rest of the group published a pamphlet entitled Per una ipotesi di ìscrittura materialisticaî (Bastogi). This gave impetus to the latest critical works of the group, published by Lithos: Volponi e la scrittura materialistica (1995) and Edoardo Cacciatore: la rivoluzione poetica del Novecento (1997).

Since 1983, he has been on the staff of the review "L'ombra d'Argo", edited by Romano Luperini, which later became "Allegoria", contributing not only to the pages of the magazine, but also to its planning until 1992. He thus took part in a programme of criticism of contemporary ideology and the relaunch of the materialist method, which includes the essays on Derrida (Contro Derrida, II. L'equivoca strategia della decostruzione, in 'L'ombra d'Argo', no. 9, 1986), on Benjamin (Interpretazione e presa di posizione nella critica letteraria di Walter Benjamin, in 'Allegoria' no. 4, 1990) and the article on allegory in Campana (Il problema della allegoria in Campana, in 'Allegoria' no. 10, 1992). He also participated in two symposia: 'Sull'interpretazione. Ermeneutica e testo letterario', (21-23 May 1987); and '1960-1990: la teoria letteraria, le metodologie critiche, il conflitto delle poetiche' (10-12 May 1990).

During the 1980s he contributed at various times to the 'Alfabeta', and participated in its symposia, including 'Il senso della letteratura' (Palermo, 9-11 November 1984) and 'Ricercatori & Co' (Viareggio, 26-28 marzo 1987). He was recently part of the early editoral committee of the review 'Avanguardia'.

He has written many volumes of criticism: monographs on Pasolini (Come leggere Ragazzi di vita di Pier Paolo Pasolini, Mursia, 1975) Eluard (Paul Eluard, La Nuova Italia, 1977), Malerba (Malerba, Roma, Bagatto libri, 1988); Saba (La critica e Saba, Bologna, Cappelli, 1976) and Michelstaedter (Michelstaedter, Lecce, Milella, 1987); and wide-ranging studies such as Teoria e critica della letteratura nelle avanguardie italiane degli anni Sessanta (Rome, Istituto dellíEnciclopedia italiana, 1982) and La letteratura italiana del primo Novecento (Rome, La Nuova Italia Scientifica, 1986), written with Marcello Carlino. He edited Carteggio futurista tra Folgore e Marinetti (Roma, Officina, 1987) and the anthology Gruppo '93 (Lecce, Manni, 1990, with Filippo Bettini). In the series 'I nodi' which he edits with Aldo Mastropasqua for the publisher Lithos, he has published Pascoli e il simbolo (Rome, Lithos, 1993). Recently he produced a methodological manual entitled Le teorie della critica letteraria (Rome, La Nuova Italia scientifica, 1994).

He has participated in seminars in Denmark, speaking on twentieth century Italian narrative and poetry and in symposia organised by UCLA in California.