Il poeta esposto. Un ‘album di famiglia’ dei poeti italiani d’oggi

Abstract

Bringing together a conspicuous group of photographic portraits of 20th-century poets, Niva Lorenzini’s volume Le parole esposte. Fotostoria della poesia italiana del Novecento (2002) can be seen as a particular type of album, presenting hundreds of photographic reproductions laid out on the page to create a narrative about the large ‘family’ of Italian poetry. Such narration develops in an intergenerational perspective by way of inclusion, exclusion, and dialogues among individuals belonging to the same small community. Most important, this ideal album raises crucial questions about the representation and self-representation of the poet as a member of a closely knit community, (presumably) characterized by a strong quest for identity.