Farewell to essayist and critic Walter Pedullà

Essayist, literary critic and journalist Walter Pedullà passed away at his home in Rome at the age of 94 after a long illness. Great condolences were expressed by RAI, with which he worked from 1977 to 1992 on the board of directors of the Public Service, of which he was also chairman from 1992 to 1993. Born in Siderno on 10 October 1930, he has lived this century intensely in the name of literature and politics since graduating in Literature in Messina. He also taught History of Modern and Contemporary Italian Literature at La Sapienza from 1958 to 2005.

He wrote monographs and collections of essays on twentieth-century culture, founded two literary magazines, directed a monumental twelve-volume history of Italian literature and a series that brings together the best of our poetry and prose in one hundred tomes; he was a contributor to 'Avanti!', president of RAI and the Teatro di Roma: Walter Pedullà, who died at the age of 94 at his home in Rome on the evening of Santo Stefano, was one of the greatest literary critics of the second half of the twentieth century, with a vast production that revealed a lively style and militant interests. He focused his interests on the most innovative aspects of the 20th century, becoming an interpreter of both new narrative trends (from experimentalism to writers as diverse as Luigi Malerba and Stefano D'Arrigo) and the historical avant-garde (from Aldo Palazzeschi to Alberto Savinio to Tommaso Landolfi).

Born in Siderno (Reggio Calabria) on 10 October 1930, Walter Pedullà graduated in Literature at the University of Messina, where he was a student of Giacomo De Benedetti. From 1958 he taught modern and contemporary Italian literature at 'La Sapienza' University, where he was his teacher's assistant for eight years and then his successor in the same chair. He was professor emeritus since 2005 and father of Gabriele Pedullà, university lecturer of Italian literature. A professional journalist since 1962, Pedullà was literary critic for the daily newspaper 'L'Avanti!' from 1961 to 1993, later collaborating with 'Il Messaggero', 'L'Unità', 'Italia Oggi' and 'Il Mattino'. He edited with Nino Borsellino the 'Storia generale della letteratura italiana', in twelve volumes, published in 1999 by Rizzoli and Motta. For the Istituto Poligrafico dello Stato he directed the series of classics 'Cento libri per mille anni' (two entirely edited by him - one on Italo Svevo, another on twentieth-century narrators and prosecutors - and two in collaboration with others: one on twentieth-century essays and one on twentieth-century poetry and theatre). He also edited two magazines he founded in 2000: 'Il Caffè illustrato' and 'L'illuminista'.

His bibliography includes the volumes: "The Literature of Welfare" (1968); "The Revolution of Literature" (1973); "The Extreme Function" (1975); "Alberto Savinio a Hypocritical and Purposeless Writer" (1979; new edition with the title "Alberto Savinio", 1991); "Svevo's Slap" (1990); "Musil's Candy" (1993); "Sappia la sinistra quello che fa la destra" (1994); "Crisi globale, pane duro e dolce fantasia" (1994); "La narrativa italiana contemporanea, 1940-1990" (1995); "Carlo Emilio Gadda" (1997); "I titoli" (1999); "Le armi del comico" (2001); "Il Novecento segreto di Giacomo Debenedetti" (2004); "Quadrare il cerchio. Il riso, il gioco, le avanguardie nella letteratura del Novecento" (2005); "E lasciatemi divertire! Divagazioni su Palazzeschi e altre attualità" (2006); "Per esempio il Novecento. From futurism to the present day' (2008). In 2011, he published his literary autobiography and militant criticism 'Giro di vita. Autobiography of an intellectual', while 2013 saw 'Racconta il Novecento. Models and stories of 20th century Italian fiction', an essay in which he traces the cultural events and changes that marked the period from D'Annunzio to postmodernism. He recently published 'Giacomo Debenedetti, interpreter of the invisible' (2015) and 'The world seen from below' (2016).