Pier Vittorio Tondelli
Encyclopedia
Pier Vittorio Tondelli was an Italian writer who wrote a small but influential body of work. He was born in Correggio, a small town in the province of Emilia-Romagna
in Italy and died in nearby Reggio Emilia of AIDS
. Tondelli enjoyed modest success as a writer but often encountered trouble with censors for his use of homosexual themes in his works. Tondelli was buried in a small cemetery in the hamlet of Canolo
, just outside of Correggio
.
Tondelli took his high school exams in 1974 and then enrolled at the University of Bologna's DAMS (Discipline Arte Musica e Spettacolo) where he took courses with Umberto Eco and Gianni Celati, two of Italy's most celebrated writers and academics. In 1979, he sent a manuscript to Aldo Tagliaferri. Tondelli credits Tagliaferri with teaching and guiding him in his writing, reinforcing upon the young author the necessity of re-writing one's work. A year later in January 1980, Altri Libertini was published, and, the following month, Tondelli graduated from the University of Bologna.
In April 1980, Tondelli was called up for military service, a requirement for Italian men at the time, stationed at Orvieto and then in Rome. Tondelli's military service provided him with the necessary experience to write two works: Il diario del soldato Acci and Pao Pao.
Emilia-Romagna
Emilia–Romagna is an administrative region of Northern Italy comprising the two historic regions of Emilia and Romagna. The capital is Bologna; it has an area of and about 4.4 million inhabitants....
in Italy and died in nearby Reggio Emilia of AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
. Tondelli enjoyed modest success as a writer but often encountered trouble with censors for his use of homosexual themes in his works. Tondelli was buried in a small cemetery in the hamlet of Canolo
Canolo
Canolo is a comune in the Province of Reggio Calabria in the Italian region Calabria, located about 70 km southwest of Catanzaro and about 50 km northeast of Reggio Calabria...
, just outside of Correggio
Correggio, Italy
Correggio is a small town and comune in the Province of Reggio Emilia, in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, in the Po valley. As of 2007 Correggio had an estimated population of 23,108....
.
Biography
Tondelli developed an early interest in reading as an adolescent, reading what one might normally expect from a young adult male -- Treasure Island, Journey to the Center of the Earth, and various Westerns. As Tondelli grew older, his reading tastes would develop and in 1974 he began to write his first narratives, saying: "I have always written, starting at 16 years of age with the usual story about adolescent frustrations". These adolescent frustrations are conflicts between Tondelli's religiosity, his desire to express his artistry, and his homosexual desires as well as a change in Tondelli's belief system, in which he writes: "I find it vulgar to pray to God side by side with people for whom God is different from my God." Tondelli developed a jealousy towards God, who he describes as unique to himself, developing a mysticism all of his own but admitted to losing something as his belief system matured.Tondelli took his high school exams in 1974 and then enrolled at the University of Bologna's DAMS (Discipline Arte Musica e Spettacolo) where he took courses with Umberto Eco and Gianni Celati, two of Italy's most celebrated writers and academics. In 1979, he sent a manuscript to Aldo Tagliaferri. Tondelli credits Tagliaferri with teaching and guiding him in his writing, reinforcing upon the young author the necessity of re-writing one's work. A year later in January 1980, Altri Libertini was published, and, the following month, Tondelli graduated from the University of Bologna.
In April 1980, Tondelli was called up for military service, a requirement for Italian men at the time, stationed at Orvieto and then in Rome. Tondelli's military service provided him with the necessary experience to write two works: Il diario del soldato Acci and Pao Pao.
Works by Tondelli
Many of Tondelli's works have been published by Bompiani in a two-volume set. Volume 1 contains his novels and short stories, and Volume 2 contains more stories, essays, conversations and miscellaneous writings. Volume 1 includes an introduction and chronology by Fulvio Panzeri: Opere. Milano: Bompiani, 2000. ISBN 8845244385. Volume 2 contains an extensive bibliography of Tondelli's writings and writings on/about Tondelli, his works, etc. Many of his works can also be purchased individually as well.- Altri Libertini (1980)
- Il Diario Del Soldato Acci (1981)
- Rimini (1985)
- Camere Separate (1989)
- Pao Pao (1989)
- Un weekend postmoderno. Cronache dagli anni ottanta (1990)
- L'abbandono. Racconti degli anni Ottanta (1993)
- Dinner Party (1994)
- Biglietti Agli Amici (1997)
- Racconti
- La casa!...La casa!...
- Desperados
- Attraversamento dell'addio
- Ragazzi a Natale
- Pier a gennaio
- Questa specie di patto
- My sweet car
- Un racconto sul vino
- Sabato italiano
Criticism and Interpretation
Most of the criticism of Tondelli is in Italian, but there are a few well-researched monographs in English. Below is a list of English and Italian sources on the works and writings of Tondelli.Literary Criticism in English
- Baranski, Zygmunt G. and Lino PertileLino PertileLino Pertile is an Italian linguist, Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures at Harvard University and a former House Master of Eliot House. Born in Italy near Padua, he taught at the universities of Reading, Sussex, and Edinburgh before coming to Harvard.His specialty is Dante scholarship,...
. The New Italian Novel. Writers of Italy. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1993. - Duncan, Derek. Reading and Writing Italian Homosexuality: A Case of Possible Difference. Aldershot, Hampshire, England: Ashgate, 2006.
- Pallotta, Augustus. Italian Novelists Since World War II, 1965-1995. Dictionary of literary biography, v. 196. Detroit, Mich: Gale Research, 1998.
Literary Criticism in Italian
- Elena Buia. Verso casa : viaggio nella narrativa di Pier Vittorio Tondelli, 2000. This essay can be downloaded free from Liber Liber.
- Viller Masoni, and Fulvio Panzeri. Studi per Tondelli: le tesi di laurea e i saggi critici del Premio Tondelli 2001. Parma: Monte Università Parma, 2002.
- Elisabetta Mondello. In principio fu Tondelli: letteratura, merci, televisione nella narrativa degli anni Novanta. Cultura, 601. Milano: Il saggiatore, 2007.
- Massimiliano ChiamentiMassimiliano ChiamentiMassimiliano Chiamenti was an Italian poet and philologist.He lived in Bologna, where he taught at the "Liceo delle Scienze Sociali Laura Bassi and at the "Liceo Scientifico Leonardo Da vinci""....
. "Verba (cartacea) manent: varianti autografe in "Altri libertini" di Pier Vittorio Tondelli". Cambridge: The Italianist, 2007. - Enrico Palandri. Pier: Tondelli e la generazione. Contromano. Roma: Laterza, 2005.
- Enos Rota. Caro Pier--: i lettori di Tondelli: ritratto di una generazione. Milano: Selene, 2002.