But that internal to the neo-avant-gardes is not the only controversy that shakes the Italian intellectual world. Within the left wing, A. Asor Rosa (Writers and people, 1965; Intellectuals and working class, 1973) proposed a total revision of post-revival and twentieth-century literature judged from the point of view of populism, and posed the problem of of the intellectual in bourgeois society, recognizing the specific function of ” knowledge technician ”. F. Fortini, in turn, by now denied the writer the conscience figure of society, while GC Ferretti (The literature of refusal, 1968) invited intellectuals to a radical self-criticism, and A. Leone de Castris (L ‘, 1972) re-proposed a substantial Marxian fidelity according to the line of the PCI. On different fronts the field of literature was enlivened since 1966 by the review Critical Instruments, with its predominantly linguistic-structural commitment, directed by M. Corti and C. Segre (Signs and Criticism, 1969; Structures and Time, 1974).
With the beginning of the seventies and the exhaustion of the neo-avant-gardes, a new situation opens up which is generally referred to as a “ reflux ”, to indicate a reversal of the general conditions – in the country even before the literature – from the disputes related to 1968 to the resumption of the forces of the state now in a hard fight against terrorism.
According to thembaprograms.com, it was a condition that seemed to many writers of literary ” emptiness ”, perhaps due to the lack of great emerging figures or clear qualifying signs, but certainly not due to a lack of writers or works, whose presence always remains intense and very lively. It is true that the situation appears not well defined in its dominant lines nor marked by young protagonists, but rather characterized by passionate research, by attempts in different directions, by conflicting proposals. Thus we are witnessing the coexistence or overlapping of signs that cover a vast area of possibilities, from the neo-commitment of the writers of the Florentine magazines Salvo Imprevisti and Collettivo r and the Sicilians of the Antigroup, to the assumption of the contradiction as the only real perspective in the Neapolitan magazine Altri Termini, to the eclectic suggestions of Anterem, to the claim of the autonomy of poetry in Tam Tam endorsed by the presence of L. Anceschi, up to the mystical proposals of Niebo confirmed by the anthology poetics The word in love (1978).
But if it cannot be said that it is the new generations who produce works of particular importance, it remains true that in the seventies some of the great protagonists are still active, who published titles of high literary value over the decade. It will be enough to recall that three collections by E. Montale are then released (Satura, 1971; Diary of ’71 and ’72, 1973; Quaderno di quattro anni, 1977) in which the poet gave life to what could be defined as his fourth time., marked by a more domestic and colloquial trend, behind which it was however easy to see the persistence of a higher theme and of an ethical and polemical fury that led to an increasingly harsh pessimism. And in the same years Montale collected, after Auto da féof 1966, his critical writings in the large volume On Poetry (1976). And still present is the work of C. Betocchi, of G. Caproni with its lucid melancholy and its concise versification (Congedo del Vaticano, 1965; Il muro della terra, 1975; Il franco cacciatore, 1982); and the long autobiographical recherche of A. Bertolucci continued (Winter Journey, 1971; The Bedroom, 1984); while Stranezze (1976) and Confuso sogno (1980) mark the passage of S. Penna from an Alexandrian poet to a mystery poet, as he himself wanted to define; and by G. Vigolo came out in 1973Solar spectrum and in 1977 The ghosts of stone. But the most present and most active poet was M. Luzi with his incessant ” controversy ” on the fate of the individual, on the pain of the world with a rich harvest of poetic works (Su fondamenti invisibili, 1971; Al fuoco della controversia, 1978; For the baptism of our fragments, 1985; Phrases and engravings of a healthy song, 1990) and with an increasingly intense commitment also in theatrical texts (Hypatia, Rosales, etc.). And other poets starting from the season of hermeticism have continued to operate with great dignity, V. Sereni (Stella variable, 1981), A. Gatto (Poesie d’amore, 1973), L. de Libero (From embers to embers, 1971; Circostanze, 1976), L. Sinisgalli (The sparrow and the leper, 1970; Flies in the bottle, 1975; Dimenticatoio, 1978), P. Bigongiari (Antimateria, 1971; Moses, 1978). And other poets still contributed to enrich a panorama full of noble presences if not unpublished proposals, B. Cattafi, A. Rosselli, G. Raboni and ML Spaziani and S. Ramat, heirs of the hermetic tradition, E. Cacciatore author of a solo experimentalism, and E. Clementelli, EF Accrocca, M. Socrate close to the experiences of the fifties; and then the authors who came from the polyvalent theoretical proposals mentioned above, M. Bettarini, F. Cavallo on one side, A. Spatola, M. De Angelis, G. Conte, M. Cucchi on the other. But outside the lines entrusted mainly to magazines, the Lombard G. Testori and L. Erba, the Romans D. Bellezza and M. Lunetta, also active as storytellers, and V. Magrelli have operated or continue to operate today. the Venetians C. Ruffato, F. Doplicher, V. Zeichen, the Lucanian V. Riviello,
