Blackout e altro

by Nanni Balestrini

"Differentemente dall'epica tradizionale, che canta il racconto delle Origini in toni favolosi proprio perché l'aedo si pone a grande distanza dagli avvenimenti, questa di Balestrini è un'epica che si scrive "in diretta"; e prende allora, piuttosto, i toni della cronaca. Proprio le cronache degli avvenimenti vengono ritagliate, montate con altri materiali e (convenzionalmente) versificate. Questa struttura, tendenzialmente aleatoria (si ricordano gli esperimenti di poesia al computer degli anni Sessanta), raggiunge un massimo di rigore in quello che appare, al lettore "postumo" di quella stagione, un autentico capolavoro - certo uno degli esiti più compiuti di Balestrini, nonché di tutta la poesia degli anni Settanta: il quadripartito poemetto Blackout. Il risultato è un concentrato assolutamente espressivo, al quale la sofisticata complessità dei rimandi culturali e l'implacabile rigore compositivo - che può per certi versi ricordare quello, a base matematica e aleatoria, della sestina lirica medievale - non tolgono un grammo di urgenza emotiva ed efficacia icastica. Anzi." (Andrea Cortellessa)

Genres: Poetry

155 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Nanni Balestrini was an Italian experimental poet, author and visual artist of the Neoavanguardia movement.
Nanni Balestrini is associated with the Italian writers movement Neoavanguardia. He wrote for the magazine Il Verri, co-directed Alfabeta and was one of the Italian writers publishing 1961 in the anthology I Novissimi. During the 1960s, 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 Marsilio publishers and editing some issues of the Cooperativa Scrittori.
Balestrini's political activities are also noteworthy: in 1968, he was co-founder of the group Potere operaio, in 1976 an important supporter of the Autonomia. In 1979, he was accused of membership in the guerilla and fled to Paris and later Germany.
Balestrini got known by a larger public thanks to his first novel in the beginning of the 1970s We Want Everything. 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 this 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 are I Furiosi, dedicated to the football supporters culture of the AC Milan, and The Editor, dealing with Giangiacomo Feltrinelli. His non-fiction book The Golden Horde, co-written with Primo Moroni, deals with the complex nature of the Italian communist movements of the 1960s and 1970s.

Reviews

[Jon Nakapalau · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incantatory lines threaded through a dream - a revolution that never happened in '68 - but never ended in the future. Really a very interesting way to 'view' a time and place; while every reference made may not be understood by the reader (due to time and place) the overall movement of the work will sweep you away.

[miss omissis]

la voce come uno strumento pulsionale dietro il quale esiste un intero universo di desideri

[Zach Carter · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't care for the foreword, but the poetry is really powerful and packs a punch. It sets the stage for a lot of the struggles waged in the 60s and 70s not only in the U.S. and Europe but throughout the third world. I found the repetition almost haunting, a dark reminder of the looming threat of fascism and state violence.

[Jared Joseph · Rating 5 out of 5]

you would like to ignore the consistency of the revolutionary so as to dream in peace

the proof is in this stupor

[Steven · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reads Italian crackdown on operaismo alongside the 1977 NYC blackout