Bassani, Giorgio

(1916–2000)

   Along with Primo Levi, Giorgio Bassani is probably the finest postwar writer produced by Italy’s small Jewish community. Born in Bologna in 1916, Bassani was raised in the Po Valley city of Ferrara, which provides the backdrop for his most important works. He was an active member of the resistance during the war and was jailed for his antifascist activities. He has written many books, but the most widely remembered are Cinque storie ferraresi (Tales of Ferrara, 1956) and Il giardino dei Finzi-Contini (The Garden of the Finzi-Continis, 1964), the poignant tale of a Jewish-Italian family that was transformed into an Oscarwinning film by Vittorio De Sica. Together with Tommaso Di Lampedusa’s Il Gattopardo (The Leopard, 1959), which Bassani was instrumental in getting published, Il giardino dei Finzi-Contini broke the neorealist monopoly in Italian arts and letters, and signaled a greater interest among Italian writers in introspection, fine writing, and traditional settings. Bassani was a founding member and early president of Italia Nostra, an association committed to the preservation of Italy’s heritage. He died in Romein April 2000.

   See also Literature; Racial Laws.