Die große Revolte: Romantrilogie

by Nanni Balestrini

Nanni Balestrinis große Roman-Trilogie ist das literarische Vermächtnis der Revolte in Italien. Mit »Wir wollen alles« wurde Balestrini mit einem Schlag zum Romancier des Operaismus. Das Buch schildert die Kämpfe der italienischen Massenarbeiter und feiert ihren Aufstand gegen das Fabriksystem. Protagonist der »Unsichtbaren« ist ein Vertreter der Generation von 1977, der Autonomia, die das gesamte Land in ein riesiges Laboratorium neuer Lebensentwürfe verwandelte. Der Staat antwortete auf ihre Herausforderung mit massiver Repression. »Der Verleger« porträtiert den legendären Begründer des Verlagshauses Feltrinelli, der bei einem Bombenanschlag auf einen Strommast ums Leben kam. Sein Tod markiert die militante Zuspitzung der Kämpfe zwischen Partisanentradition und entstehender Fabrikguerilla. Kennzeichen der Romane Balestrinis ist eine atemberaubend verdichtete Prosa, deren Methoden so experimentell sind wie die Bewegungen und Lebenswege, von denen sie handelt.

440 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1999

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.