1. I will not be discussing Pasolini here. Pasolini's role in Friuli in the late 1940s, and his return to dialect poetry in the 1970s has already been well documented, to the extent that the flourishing of Friulian literature that took place both in the intervening period and after his death has been all but ignored outside of Friuli. This article instead focuses on a range of Friulian authors writing in the post-war period, all of whom illustrate alternative modes of interaction between dialect literature and regional ideologies.Google Scholar

2. See Rassegne di leterature furlane des origjinis ai nestri timp (Collection of Friulian Literature from its Origins to the Present) edited by Verone, Luzian, Società Filologica Friulana, Udine, 1999.Google Scholar

3. A comprehensive study of Friulian ethno-nationalism is lacking. On the relations between Friulian society and culture, see, however, Pellegrini, Rienzo, Aspetti e problemi della letteratura in friulano nel seconda dopoguerra , Grillo, Udine, 1981.Google Scholar

4. In almost all discussions of regionalism in this area, beginning with the CLN declarations of 1944, Friuli and Venezia Giulia are often regarded as integral parts of the same region. However, the dynamics of Friulian nationalism are distinct from those of nationalist movements in Trieste and Venezia Giulia.Google Scholar

5. See D'Aronco, Gianfranco, Friuli perché: una testimonianza dal 1945 a oggi , Tricesimo (Udine), Roberto Vattori Editore, Udine, 1988, p. 104.Google Scholar

6. See Nievo, Stanislao, ‘L'evento sismico’, in Enciclopedia Monografica del Friuli-Venezia Giulia (EMFVG), 4 vols, Istituto per l'Enciclopedia del Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Udine, 1972–1983, III, 1, pp. 456–160; Merlino, Elena (ed.), ‘Cronologia essenziale degli eventi legati ai sismi nel 1976’, ibid., pp. 461–180.Google Scholar

7. On the rise of the Liga Veneta, see Allum, Percy and Diamanti, Ilvo, ‘The Autonomous Leagues in the Veneto’, in Levy, Carl (ed.), Italian Regionalism: History, Identity and Politics , Berg, Oxford, 1996, pp. 151–169. The particular case of the rise of the Leagues in Friuli has aroused little interest, although there are evident conflicts between the ideologies of historical autonomist movements in Friuli and the motives and rhetoric of the Leagues.Google Scholar

8. The electorate of Movimento Friuli and the Socialist Party, especially in Carnia, appears to have been virtually interchangeable. Furthermore, Gino di Caporiacco, a prominent proponent of Friulian autonomy, has stood for the Democratici di Sinistra (DS). Stefano Colussi, founder of the Fronte Friuli Indipendente (1993), was previously a member of the Communist and Socialist Parties.Google Scholar

9. In the ‘first-past-the-post’ sections of the 2001 elections in the provinces of Udine and Pordenone, the Casa delle Libertà won three (out of three) seats in the Upper Chamber, and seven (out of seven) in the Lower Chamber. The proportional vote was, however, more illuminating. In Friuli—Venezia Giulia, the conservative tendencies in Friuli are balanced by the stronger left-wing (and extreme right-wing) traditions in Venezia Giulia, both in Trieste and Gorizia. In 2001, the vote for Forza Italia (Chamber) in Friuli–Venezia Giulia was 28.1 per cent compared to 29.4 per cent nationally, and the sum of the Democratici di Sinistra and Margherita vote was 30.8 per cent in Friuli–Venezia Giulia (rather than Friuli) compared to 31.1 per cent nationally, although in Friuli this vote was significantly weighted towards the centrist Margherita coalition (Messaggero Veneto, 15 May 2001). The electoral results for 1987 also show that the Friuli–Venezia Giulia vote reflected the Italian national situation. The Christian Democrats received 33.3 per cent of the vote, compared to 34.3 nationally, the Socialists attracted 18.1 per cent compared to 14.3 per cent nationally and the Communist Party 19.6 per cent compared to 26.6 per cent nationally. In Friuli, autonomist parties have tended to concentrate on the regional, provincial and local elections, although with only limited success. In the 1998 regional elections, for example, Unione Friuli obtained 5 per cent of the vote in Udine, and 3 per cent in Pordenone. In the 1988 regional elections (26 June 1988), Movimento Friuli received only 1.7 per cent of the vote. By contrast in the general elections of the previous year, in Valle D'Aosta, Trentino–Alto Adige and Sardinia, regional parties received 94.7 per cent, 37.6 per cent and 15.4 per cent of the vote, respectively (see ISTAT, Le regioni in cifre , ISTAT, Rome, 1991). In the 2001 general election no Friulian autonomist parties even participated (Unione Friuli supported the Northern Leagues, and put up no candidates), unlike in other autonomous Regions (Valle D'Aosta, Trentino–Alto Adige and Sardinia in particular) or even Veneto and Lombardy, where autonomist parties were surprisingly successful.Google Scholar

10. From 1943, Friuli was part of the German Operationszone Adriatisches Kunstenland, not the Repubblica di Salò. Resistance in the region was also complicated by the presence of Yugoslav forces. See, for example, Lizzero, Mario and Buvoli, Alberto, ‘La resistenza’, in EMFVG, III, 2, pp. 411–144; Apih, Elio, ‘La presenza dell'antifascismo prima del Secondo conflitto’, ibid., pp. 394–395; Rotelli, Ettore, L'avvento della regione in Italia: dalla caduta del regime fascista alla Costituzione repubblicana (1943–1947), Giuffré, Milan, 1967, pp. 74–84.Google Scholar

11. See D'Aronco, , Friuli perché , p. 15. See also Tessitori, Tiziano, L'autonomia friulana: concetti e motivi, Arti Grafiche Friulane, Udine, 1945; Tessitori, , Come nacque la regione Friuli-Venezia Giulia: documenti e note, Del Bianco, Udine, 1947; Ciceri, Luigi, ‘Il Friuli al bivio’, Libertà, 2 November 1946; Ciceri, ‘La battaglia per l'Autonomia Regionale Friulana’, Libertà, 15 January 1947. Tessitori was the founder of the Associazione per l'Autonomia Friulana (29 July 1945), and a vociferous Christian Democrat proponent of regional autonomy for Friuli.Google Scholar

12. See Woolf, Stuart, ‘Introduction’, in Woolf, Stuart (ed.), Nationalism in Europe, 1815 to the Present: A Reader , Routledge, London and New York, 1996, pp. 1–39.Google Scholar

13. Trudgill, Peter, Sociolinguistics: An Introduction to Language and Society , London, Penguin, 1995, p. 121.Google Scholar

14. See Pizzorusso, Alessandro, ‘Lingua e diritto’, appendix to Minoranze e maggioranze , Einaudi, Turin, 1993, pp. 185–207; Lepschy, Anna Laura, Lepschy, Giulio and Voghera, Miriam, ‘Linguistic variety in Italy’, in Levy, (ed.), Italian Regionalism, pp. 69–80. Lanaro, Silvio, ‘Il problema storico dell'identità nazionale italiana’, in Cordellier, Serge and Poisson, Elisabeth (eds), Nazioni e nazionalismi, Asterios, Trieste, 1999, pp. 79–100; Rosati, Massimo, Il patriottismo italiano: culture politiche e identità nazionali , Laterza, Bari, 2000; Salvi, Sergio, ‘Le minoranze linguistiche in Italia’, in Bernardi, Ulderico (ed.), Le mille culture: comunità locali e partecipazione politica, Coines, Rome, 1976, pp. 138–150. See also the national and regional press response to the passing of the Labriola legislation for minority languages, on 22 November 1991.Google Scholar

15. Trudgill, , Sociolinguistics , p. 131.Google Scholar

16. On contemporary European ethno-nationalism, see Smith, Anthony, National Identity , Penguin, London, 1991. For a partisan account of these movements in Europe, see Salvi, Sergio, Le nazioni proibite: guida a dieci colonie ‘interne’ dell'Europa occidentale, Vallecchi, Florence, 1973. See also Lanaro, , ‘Il problema storico dell'identità nazionale italiana’.Google Scholar

17. The assumption of nationalists, according to Gellner, is that ‘nation’ and ‘state’ should coincide. Friulian nationalists assert that they constitute a different ‘nation’ (as emphasized by the use of the imperial banner, and political movements such as Nazion FriÛl), and hence require a separate, or autonomous ‘state’.Google Scholar

18. For the insistence on Friuli's ‘historical’ status, see, for example, Ellero, Gianfranco, ‘Una legge per la rinascita’, in Bergamini, Giuseppe (ed.) Agenda Friulana 1979 , Chiandetti, Reana del Royale (Udine), 1978, 22 August 1979. On the notion of ethnic descent in nationalist movements, see Hobsbawm, E. J., Nations and Nationalism since 1780, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1990, p. 63, cited by Woolf, ‘Introduction’, in Woolf, (ed.), Nationalism in Europe, p. 14. On the cultural difference of Friulians, see, among others, Carlo Sgorlon, ‘Presentazione di Prime di sere’, Sot la nape, 27, 2 (1975), pp. 6–71, p. 66: ‘la coscienza della mia non appartenenza alla civiltà italiana’ (‘the awareness that I do not belong to Italian civilization’); Salvi, , Le nazioni proibite, pp. 334–336.Google Scholar

19. See, for example, Mizzau, Alfeo, ‘Innovazioni nella tradizione: problemi e proposte delle Comunità di Lingue minoritarie’, Sot la nape , 41, 2–3 (1989), pp. 131–132, p. 131 (Mizzau, then Director of the Società Filologica Friulana, was also a Christian Democrat MEP). Venice retained Friuli as a separate institution, primarily in order to retain feudal control, and instituted the peasant councils known as ‘Contadinanze’ (‘contadinance ’) to disrupt the construction of an alternative power base. On the Celtic origins of Friulians, see Quai, Franco, Protostoria del Friuli: i celti, Chiandetti, Reana del Rojale (Udine), 1988.Google Scholar

20. Maniacco, Tito, L'ideologia friulana: critica dell'immaginario collettivo , Kappa Vu, Udine, 1995, p. 25.Google Scholar

21. See Smith, , National Identity , p. 138.Google Scholar

22. Rosati, Massimo, Il patriottismo italiano , p. 5. On the distinction between nationalism and patriotism, see Viroli, Maurizio, Per amore della Patria: patriottismo e nazionalismo nella storia, Laterza, Bari, 1995. According to the definition by Enrico Corradini in 1911: ‘Il patriottismo è altruista, il nazionalismo è egoista’ (‘Patriotism is altruistic, nationalism is selfish’), cited by Tuccari, Francesco, La nazione, Laterza, Bari, 2000, p. 111.Google Scholar

23. Smith, , National Identity , p. 140.Google Scholar

24. See Leca, Jean, ‘Di che cosa parliamo?’, in Cordellier, and Poisson, (eds), Nazioni e nazionalismi , pp. 13–22, p. 15.Google Scholar

25. See Nazzi, , La ‘benemerita’ Società Filologica Friulana: controstoria , Clape Culturâl Acuilee, Udine, 1997. The Società Filologica Friulana was founded in 1919 in Udine, and has historically been the most powerful and controversial cultural organization in Friuli.Google Scholar

26. See Forte, Maria, La tiere di Lansing , Tarantola-Tavoschi, Udine, 1974.Google Scholar

27. Zof, Galliano, ‘Presentazione del dramma’, in Lune in cercli: storie de vicînie dal Ravoncli tal an dal Signôr 1653 (Full Moon: Tales from the Ravoncli area dating from the Year of Our Lord 1653) , San Giovanni al Natisone, Istituto per la Ricerca e la Promozione della Civiltà Friulana, 1997, p. 3.Google Scholar

28. Frau, , ‘L'individualità linguistica del friulano’, Sot la nape , 27, 1 (1975), pp. 43–17, p. 44.Google Scholar

29. Bembo, Pietro, Prose della volgar lingua , cited by Coletti, Vittorio, Storia dell'italiano letterario: dalle origini al Novecento , Einaudi, Turin, 1993, p. 127.Google Scholar

30. Cjanton, Lelo (Aurelio Cantoni), ‘Il furlan viodÛt di un scritôr’ (‘Friulian, as seen by a writer’), Sot la nape , 26, 1 (1974), pp. 74–82, p. 81.Google Scholar

31. Maffia, Dante, ‘Amedeo Giacomini: un'antologia’, Diverse lingue , 17–18 (1998), pp. 29–36, p. 34.Google Scholar

32. Pellegrini, Rienzo, ‘Per una storia di Libers … di scugnî lâ’ , in Zanier, Leonardo, Libers … di scugnî lâ (Free … to Have to Leave) , Ediesse, Rome, 1999, pp. 133–194, pp. 154–155, emphasis in the original.Google Scholar

33. Ellero, Gianfranco, ‘Per l'unità del Friuli’, Sot la nape , 39, 3 (1987), pp. 89–92, p. 91.Google Scholar

34. Mizzau, , ‘Innovazioni nella tradizione’, p. 131.Google Scholar

35. Pillinini, Giovanni, ‘Dulà vadie la poesie furlane uè’, Ce fastu? , 60 (1984), pp. 151–160, p. 159.Google Scholar

36. Mizzau, , ‘Innovazioni nella tradizione’, p. 132.Google Scholar

37. Pellegrini, Rienzo, review of Novella Cantarutti Sfueis di chel âtri jeir, Ce fastu? , 73, 2 (1997), pp. 331–335, p. 333. This definition of Friulian character was a Christian Democrat slogan.Google Scholar

38. Sgorlon, Carlo, ‘Presentazione di Prime di sere’, Sot la nape, 27, 2 (April–June 1975), pp. 66–71, p. 66.Google Scholar

39. See Maniacco, , L'ideologia friulana , p. 33.Google Scholar

40. Pellegrini, Rienzo, ‘Un ricordo di Celso Macor’, Metodi e ricerche , 18, 1 (1999), pp. 171–193, p. 189.Google Scholar

41. Zanier, Leonardo (1935–) is one of the most politically committed authors of post-war Friuli. His first collection, Libers … di scugnî lâ, dealt with the problem of emigration in his native Carnia, and he has since been active in Italian Union politics, also standing as a left-wing candidate (DS) in the 1999 European elections. Libers … di scugnî là has been published in a number of different editions but, most significantly, by Garzanti in 1977 (one year after the Friulian earthquake) with an introduction by De Mauro, Tullio. Other collections of his verse include Sboradura e Sanc (poesie 1977–80) (Nuova Guaraldi, Florence, 1981) and Usmas–tracce: poesie 1988–1990 (Edizioni Casagrande Bellinzona, Bellinzona, 1991). Galliano Zof (1933–), a schoolteacher by profession, based in Santa Maria la Longa, was associated in the 1960s with the Tesaur literary circle (headed by Gianfranco D'Aronco) and was a founder member of the important literary review La Cjarande. He is both a poet and dramatist.Google Scholar

42. Zanier, , ‘Dedica’, Libers … di scugnî là , pp. 16–25, p. 20.Google Scholar

43. Pellegrini, , Aspetti e problemi , p. 99.Google Scholar

44. Zof, Galliano, Flôrs: poesie ladine scelte 1961/1980 , La Nuova Base, Udine, 1981, p. 50.Google Scholar

45. Ibid. , p. 50.Google Scholar

46. See, for example, Pasolini, , ‘Preiera’ (‘Prayer’), in Verone, , Rassegne , p. 193. See also Pasolini, , Romancero in La nuova gioventù, Einaudi, Turin, 1975, pp. 135–153; Buiese, Elsa, ‘Tornâ ogni sere lì’, in Tasint peraulis smenteadis, Società Filologica Friulana, Udine, 1978, p. 20.Google Scholar

47. In 1951 Friulian GDP was 79 per cent of the Italian national average. In 1981 it was 115.5 per cent. Average yearly income in the region in 1996 was 36.74 million Lire, fifth in the list of Italian regions, behind Lombardy, Emilia Romagna, Valle D'Aosta and Trentino—Alto Adige, in that order (statistics from the Istituto Guglielmo Tagliacarne and Unioncamere, published in Il Friuli , 26 March 1998).Google Scholar

48. See Cjanton, , ‘Il furlan viodÛt di un scritôr’, p. 80.Google Scholar

49. Ellero, , ‘Per l'unità del Friuli’, p. 92.Google Scholar

50. Trudgill, , Sociolinguistics , p. 41. See also Maniacco, , L'ideologia friulana, p. 71. On the different definitions of ‘citizenship’ in contemporary Europe and the diverse responses to immigration, see de Wenden, Catherine Wihtol, ‘Nazione e cittadinanza: una coppia di soci-rivali’, Nazioni e nazionalismi, pp. 45–55.Google Scholar

51. Maniacco, , L'ideologia friulana , p. 35.Google Scholar

52. Bartolini, Elio is best known for his Neorealist fiction in Italian, including Icaro e Petronio (1950) and Chi abita la villa (1967), and his work for the cinema. He, like many Friulian poets, published only Friulian works following the earthquake in 1976. His two most important collections, both of which have been published in a number of different versions, are (in their most recent manifestations) Poesiis protestantis (Kappa Vu, Udine, 1996) and Cansonetutis (Marsilio, Venice, 1999).Google Scholar

53. Bartolini, , Poesiis protestantis , pp. 13–17.Google Scholar

54. See Brevini, , Le parole perdute: dialetti e poesia nel nostra secolo , Einaudi, Turin, 1990, p. 350.Google Scholar

55. The title of the poem is a play on the dual meaning of ‘feriis’, either ‘holidays’ or ‘wild beasts’.Google Scholar

56. Bartolini, , Poesiis protestantis , p. 23. In Bartolini's text, however, ‘terrone’, a derogatory term for southerners, is translated as ‘meridionale’ (‘southern’).Google Scholar

57. See Maniacco, Tito, ‘Scrittore che guarda il paesaggio’, in Bartolini, , Poesiis protestantis , pp. 5–10, p. 7.Google Scholar

58. Zanier, , Sboradura e Sanc (poesie 1977–80) (Sperm and Blood) , Florence, Nuova Guaraldi, 1981, p. 51. Zanier's poem centres on a pun on the German and Friulian meanings of ‘Gott’ (‘God’) and ‘Got’ (‘a drop’, habitually used to refer to a glass of wine).Google Scholar

59. Bartolini, , Poesiis protestantis , p. 27.Google Scholar

60. Appi, Renato, Come dal purgatoriu (As if from Purgatory) , Gianfranco Angelico Benvenuto, Udine, 1984, p. 38. Renato Appi (1923–91), wrote in the Friulian dialect of Cordenons. He was primarily a dramatist, both in Italian and Friulian, whose work was broadly Neorealist in style. The most important collection of his fiction and poetry is Renato Appi, Chel fantassút descòls: poesie e racconti friulani, Concordia Sette, Pordenone, 1993.Google Scholar

61. Pittana, Angelo (Agnul di Spere), Il sît di Diu: 26 storiis , Ribis, Udine, 1983. Angelo Pittana (1930–), an engineer who worked for many years on motorway construction in Switzerland, has produced numerous volumes of his poetry and prose, mainly published by small cultural organizations. He is one of the most significant proponents of the modernization of Friulian literary production, has produced translations into Friulian of authors including Hemingway and Nazim Hikmet, and has recently collaborated on projects for the regulation of neologisms in Friulian, including La nomencladure des matematichis, vocabui par furlan, Italian e inglês (Mathematical Terminology: A Friulian, Italian and English Dictionary), IstitÛt ladinfurlan ‘Pre Checo Placerean’, Codroipo, 1997.Google Scholar

62. See Pellegrini, , ‘La ricerca del tempo vero’, in Pittana, Angelo M., Lis paveis di Plasencis , Casagrande, Bellinzona, 1992, pp. 11–24.Google Scholar

63. Ciceri, Adreina, review of Pittana, Il sît di Diu, Sot la nape , 35, 2–3 (1983), pp. 115–116, p. 116, emphasis in the original.Google Scholar

64. Ibid. , p. 116.Google Scholar

65. See also Pillinini, , ‘Dulà vadie’, p. 158; D'Aronco, , ‘Poesia e non poesia friulana, Ce fastu?, 62 (1986), pp. 141–164, p. 154.Google Scholar

66. Ciceri, Adreina had also opposed the point of view expressed by Giorgio Faggin in his introduction to Sgorlon's Il Dolfin (La Nuova Base, Udine, 1982). See Pittana, Angelo, ‘Considerazions sul scrivi prose furlane’ (‘Observations Regarding Prose Writing in Friulian’), Ce fastu?, 60 (1984), pp. 161–166, p. 166.Google Scholar

67. Pittana, , ‘Considerazions’, p. 164, emphasis in the original.Google Scholar

68. Ibid. , p. 166.Google Scholar

69. See Marchetti, Giuseppe, ‘Per una koiné friulana’, Sot la nape , 7, 2 (1955), pp. 3–5, p. 3.Google Scholar

70. See Brevini, , Le parole perdute , p. 70. The relationship between Friulian dialect poetry and the literary phenomenon of the neodialettali is too complex to be dealt with here. In general, however, it is particularly evident that Friulian poetry now tends towards greater conformity to national Italian literary trends. The main reasons for this transformation are the increase in levels of education in Friuli over the past fifty years, and the shift towards a poetic production by and for humanities graduates, rather than the locally based and locally read works by ‘dilettanti’ (such as Pittana) who form the bulk of Friulian post-war poetry.Google Scholar

71. Osservatorio per la Tutela della Lingua Friulana (OLF), also known as the Osservatori de Lenghe e Culture furlanis. This organization was established by Legge Regionale 15/1996, passed on 22 March 1996, ‘Norme per la tutela e la promozione della lingua e della cultura friulana e istituzione del servizio per le lingue regionali e minoritarie’. One of its functions is to assign funds to cultural projects in Friulian.Google Scholar

72. Patui, Paolo et al., ‘Contributi per il friulano: chi non si “normalizza” non becca la lira’ (‘Funds for Friulian: If you don't “standardize” you won't get a penny’), Il Friuli , 3 December 1999.Google Scholar

73. Law no. 3366, ‘Norme in materia di tutela delle minoranze linguistiche’ (Regulations Concerning the Protection of Minority Languages) was passed in the Italian Senate on 25 November 1999.Google Scholar