Carlo Alianello

Carlo Alianello was an Italian writer and screenwriter.

He was born in Rome to a family of Basilicatese origins, his father Antonio, an army officer, was originally from Potenza, while his mother Luisa Salvia was from Tito. On his paternal side, Alianello descended from a family loyal to the Bourbon dynasty; on his maternal side, his ancestors were nobles with secular and liberal ideals, who, after the Risorgimento, actively participated in the political life of the new Italian state.

Carlo lived his childhood and adolescence without a permanent home due to his father's work. At the age of two, he moved with his parents to La Maddalena ( Sardinia ), attending elementary school. Subsequently he emigrated to Florence , where he enrolled in the lower secondary school. During his stay in Florence he enrolled in the Marian Congregation of the Jesuits , which he also continued to practice throughout his life when he returned to Rome. In the capital he attended high school and, eager to follow in his father's footsteps, tried to pursue a career in the army but his dream was thwarted due to severe short-sightedness.

After finishing high school, Alianello enrolled in university, earning a degree in literature and, having obtained the teaching post, was a teacher in the high schools of Rieti, Camerino and Rome. He also began to collaborate for newspapers such as Il Mondo di Giovanni Amendola and Nuovo Convito, owned by a noblewoman from Basilicata, the Marquise Maria Del Vasto Celano. Later he worked as a publicist for other newspapers such as Corriere della Sera, Il Giornale d'Italia, Il Messaggero and Il Caffè.

During the last stage of his career, he held the position of inspector at the Ministry of Education. He was also the author of several poems as well as a painter, dedicating himself, in his spare time, to the creation of self-portraits and landscapes. Initially Alianello's literary interests were oriented towards the theatre.

In 1925 he wrote a play which was performed at Anton Giulio Bragaglia 's "Teatro degli Indipendenti" and in 1928 he published his first essay entitled Il teatro di Maurizio Maeterlinck. In 1931, Alianello wrote a drama, Giuditta, which was never published. In the late 1930s, he abandoned the theater field to return briefly in 1955, with another drama entitled Luna sulla Gran Guardia , which was also broadcast on the radio.

After leaving the theater, Alianello devoted himself to the historical novel, focusing on the theme of national unification. In some of his subsequent productions, he revisited the history of Basilicata and the south in general, drawing inspiration from the memories and history of his ancestors: through his father and, even more, through his grandfather, a former Bourbon officer originally from Missanello who , out of fidelity to his flag, refused to take the oath to the Savoyard army, when Francis II was dethroned by unitary troops.

His activity consists of a sort of narrative "triptych", on the story of the historical events of the collapse of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies . Alianello's historical, cultural and narrative objective is a revisitation of the Risorgimento process, reinterpreted as a dramatic moment in which a foreign power occupies a sovereign state. In his writings, Alianello, with a sharp and irreverent tone, accused the winners of historical manipulation but without denying the unitary value, with the sole purpose of exposing his own version of the facts on the unification process. However, he suffered harsh criticism and accusations of pro-Bourbonism, which led to his marginalization from the literary majority current, even if his works met with success and earned him some important awards.

His first revisionist book, L'Alfiere ( 1942 ), was a countercurrent work that questioned the myth of the Risorgimento, telling an alternative story to the "official" one, published during the Fascist period , in which the unification of Italy and Giuseppe Garibaldi 's exploits were considered untouchable subjects. According to some biographers, for this stance against the dictates of fascism, Alianello risked confinement, which was averted by the fall of the regime. According to others, it is hardly credible that in 1942 the regime could persecute a novelist who had not in any way attacked power, also considering that narrative works and essays of an anti-Risorgimento nature had already been published. With the advent of the Republic, the writer published other revisionist works such as Soldiers of the King ( 1952 ), The legacy of the prioress ( 1963 ), considered by some to be the most important in his bibliography, and The Conquest of the South ( 1972 ).

Alongside the Risorgimento theme, another topic very dear to Alianello is religion. In The Disappointed Magician ( 1947 ), the author highlights the comparison between faith and rationalism. The novel is about a young atheist and materialist professor who moves to a southern town for work reasons, staying with a family devoted to mysticism. This experience will arouse serious doubts in the professor, which will distance him more and more from his skeptical thinking.

Other novels of religious inspiration are Mary and the Brothers ( 1955 ), the re-reading of the story of Jesus , which describes his pain for the incomprehension of his disciples and for the world's indifference to the law of charity; Birth of Eve ( 1966 ), focusing on the biblical figure of Adam's companion.

Other works follow such as The writer or of solitude ( 1970 ), an autobiographical novel; Il galletto rosso ( 1971 ), a collection of short stories for children; The catch ( 1973 ), his last testimony set in the post-Risorgimento period, during the battle of Adua and the Banca Romana scandal . In his latest book, the author explains his thoughts on the persistent political-cultural division among Italians despite national unification.

Two literary works by Alianello have been transposed into television screenplays broadcast by RAI : ​​L'Alfiere ( 1956 ), with Aroldo Tieri , Domenico Modugno, Maria Fiore and The legacy of the prioress ( 1980 ), with Alida Valli, Evelina Nazzari and Giancarlo Prete . Both were directed by director Anton Giulio Majano and Alianello participated in the screenplays and subjects.

The writer also collaborated in the making of other films such as Maddalena ( 1951 ) by Augusto Genina , Senso ( 1954 ) by Luchino Visconti and Viva l'Italia ( 1961 ) by Roberto Rossellini.

The author died in Rome on 1 April 1981 , at the age of 80.