Farewell Alberto Arbasino, one of the protagonists of 20th century Italian culture passes away

Alberto Arbasino, one of the most important Italian writers of the 20th century, passed away tonight. The announcement was made by his family: Arbasino passed away in Voghera, at the age of 90, after a long illness. Born in Voghera itself, on January 22, 1930, Arbasino, after studying at the Grattoni high school in Voghera, first undertook medical studies and then enrolled in the Faculty of Law at the State University of Milan, where he graduated in 1955. After graduation, having launched his university career (he was also a fellow at Harvard), he began in parallel to write short stories, publishing in magazines such as Paragone and Officina. However, it was in 1963 that he made his debut in fiction, with Fratelli d’Italia, a long “surrealist” novel that recounts the adventures of two young homosexuals who travel along Italy and Europe and which, through the eyes of the two protagonists, ironically recounts the Italian cultural milieu of the 1960s (the novel, later revised and expanded over the years, so much so that it exceeded a thousand pages in the 1993 edition, reached the finals of the Campiello Prize in 1994).

In 1969 it was the turn of another controversial novel, Super Heliogabalus, a kind of narrative of a modern Heliogabalus, the Roman emperor known for his excesses. In the meantime, Arbasino had begun to collaborate with Corriere della Sera, moving on to Repubblica in 1976: his articles, characterized by his typical ironic and surreal style, have always targeted customs, politics, society and contemporary culture. For Arbasino also experiences in TV: in 1977 he was entrusted with the conduction, on Rai 2, of the program Match, a talk show that in each episode opposed two personalities of culture or journalism, characterized by opposing views, on topical issues. In addition, from 1983 to 1987 Arbasino was also an MP, elected to Parliament from the ranks of the Italian Republican Party.

His nonfiction production is long, almost always aimed at striking at contemporary society: Un paese senza of 1980 or Paesaggi italiani con zombi (Italian Landscapes with Zombies ) are among the most important examples in this regard. A protagonist of the Neoavantgarde, he was among the leading figures of Gruppo ’63, and from the very beginning (although he later broke away from the avant-garde) he never failed in his civic commitment and his desire to recount contemporaneity with a critical eye.

Farewell Alberto Arbasino, one of the protagonists of 20th century Italian culture passes away

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