Nanni Balestrini (2 July 1935 – 19 May 2019) was an Italian experimental poet, author and of the Neoavanguardia movement.
Context
Nanni Balestrini is associated with the Italian writers' movement
Neoavanguardia. He wrote for the magazine
Il Verri, founded and co-directed the now-defunct
Alfabeta and was one of the Italian writers published in the anthology
I Novissimi (1961).
Balestrini was born in Milan. During the 1960s, as the group was growing and becoming the Gruppo 63, Balestrini was the editor of their publications. From 1962 to 1972, he was working for Feltrinelli, cooperating with the publishers and editing some issues of the Cooperativa Scrittori. In 1968, Balestrini was co-founder of the Potere Operaio political group and in 1976 was an important supporter of the Autonomia Operaia. In 1979, he was accused of membership in a guerilla group and fled to Paris and later Germany.
Balestrini became known by a larger public thanks to his first novel We Want Everything ( Vogliamo tutto, 1971). It describes the struggles and conflicts in the car factory of Fiat. In the following years, the social movements of his time continued to be his subject. With the book The Unseen, he created a literary monument for the "Generation of 1977". It shows the atmosphere of rapid social change during these years, concretising in house occupations, the creation of free radios and more, and also shows the considerable repression by the state of these movements. Other important works by Balestrini include; I Furiosi, dedicated to the football supporters culture of the AC Milan, and The Editor, dealing with Giangiacomo Feltrinelli. Especially in his book The Golden Horde, co-written with Primo Moroni, his proximity to operaismo is obvious. His final novel published while he was still living, Sandokan (2004) deals with the Camorra in Casal di Principe.
His experimental "novel" Tristano, was conceived to be read by each reader differently, since each sentence is randomly shuffled. Originally conceived in 1966, it had to await publication till the age of print-on-demand, but critic Tim Martin found one of its 109 trillion versions "drifting, impressionistic and oddly compelling."[ Best fiction to read 2014 The Telegraph.][ Nanni Balestrini Verso Books.] Emanuela Patti contends that Nanni Balestrini’s Tape Mark I, was the first Italian electronic literature work.
Publications
English
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We Want Everything, trans. Matt Holden, Verso Books, 2016. With an introduction by Rachel Kushner.
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Tristano, trans. Mike Harakis, Verso Books, 2014 1966. With an introduction by Umberto Eco.
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Lawrence R. Smith (ed.), The New Italian Poetry, 1945 to the Present, University of California Press, 1981.
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The Unseen, trans. Liz Heron, Verso Books, 1989. With an introduction by Antonio Negri.
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Sandokan, trans. Antony Shugaar, Melville House Publishing, 2009.
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Two Short Stories: Let a Thousand Hands Reach Out to Pick Up The Gun, FIAT, Bandit Press & Shortfuse Press, 2010.
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Vogliamo Tutto: the novel of Italy’s Hot Autumn, Telephone Publishing, Melbourne, Australia, 2014.
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Blackout, trans. Peter Valente, Commune Editions, 2017. With an introduction by Franco ‘Bifo’ Berardi.
Italian
Poetry
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Come si agisce, Feltrinelli, 1963.
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Ma noi facciamone un'altra, Feltrinelli, 1966.
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Poesie pratiche, antologia 1954-1969, Einaudi, 1976.
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Le ballate della signorina Richmond, Coop. Scrittori, 1977.
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Blackout, DeriveApprodi, 2009 2001.
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Ipocalisse, Scheiwiller, 1986.
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Il ritorno della signorina Richmond, Becco giallo, 1987.
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Osservazioni sul volo degli uccelli, poesie 1954-56, Scheiwiller, 1988.
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Il pubblico del labirinto, Scheiwiller, 1992.
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Estremi rimedi, Manni, 1995.
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Le avventure complete della signorina Richmond, Testo&Immagine, 1999.
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Elettra, Luca Sossella, 2001.
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Tutto in una volta, antologia 1954-2003, Edizioni del Leone, 2003.
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Sfinimondo, Bibliopolis, 2003.
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Sconnessioni, Rome, Fermenti, 2008.
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Blackout e altro, Rome, Deriveapprodi, 2009.
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Lo sventramento della storia, Rome, Polìmata, 2009.
Novels
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Tristano, DeriveApprodi, 2007 1964.
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Vogliamo tutto, DeriveApprodi, 2004 1971.
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La violenza illustrata, DeriveApprodi, 2001 1976.
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Gli invisibili, DeriveApprodi, 2005 1987.
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L'editore, DeriveApprodi, 2006 1989.
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I furiosi, DeriveApprodi, 2004 1994.
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Una mattina ci siam svegliati, Baldini & Castoldi, 1995.
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La Grande Rivolta, Bompiani, 1999.
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Sandokan, storia di camorra, Einaudi, 2004.
Short stories
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Disposta l'autopsia dell'anarchico morto dopo i violenti scontri di Pisa in: Paola Staccioli, In ordine pubblico, Rome, 2002, S. 25-31.
Various
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Gruppo 63, L'Antologia, (mit Alfredo Giuliani), Testo&Immagine, 2002 1964.
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Gruppo 63. Il romanzo sperimentale, Feltrinelli, 1965.
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L'Opera di Pechino, (mit Letizia Paolozzi), Feltrinelli, 1966.
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L'orda d'oro, (mit Primo Moroni), Sugarco, 1988; Feltrinelli, 1997, 2003.
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Parma 1922, DeriveApprodi, 2002.
External links
