There is no figure more important in the development of modern Italian dialectical poetry than Carlo Porta. Coming of age in the era of emerging social and political liberalism inaugurated by the French Revolution, Porta, in his comic satires of Milanese life, consistently undermines traditional sources of authority, not only by exposing the failings of those in political, religious, or economic power, but also by simply giving voice to a segment of lower-class society that had been hitherto almost totally ignored by lyric poetry in the Italian tradition. Very aware of the experimental – radical, even – nature of his poetic project, Porta, in a letter to his son (which serves as both an apologia of and a preface to his collected poetry), compares his work to a sharpened knife – a…
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Citation: Pedatella, Stefan. "Carlo Porta". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 06 March 2012 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=12675, accessed 06 October 2024.]