Spazio grafico e stile. Un'indagine attraverso la poesia italiana del secondo Novecento

The present work, based on Italian poetry from the second half of the 20th century, investigates graphic space as a stylistic tool. It proposes interpretative parameters and provides a catalog of forms with the aim of encouraging the reception of spatiality among the subjects of contemporary metrical studies. The research follows a general perspective while considering the peculiar directions of the Italian cultural-historical field. The corpus on which the work is based consists of around 40 authors. Extremely visually characterized poems are represented alongside graphically standard poems, observing points of contact and hybridizations between avant-garde and tradition. The discourse intentionally crosses various authors and poems, illustrating the same declinations of stylistic form related to spatiality. These are gradually approached and described through focused textual analyses. The research enhances the areas of interaction between space and the verbal component of texts (rhythm, sound and intonation, syntax and argumentative structures, semantics). Rhetorical-linguistic patterns are considered. The first part of the essay traces historically the path of the difficult integration of the spatial aspects of writing within linguistic and stylistic studies. Some fundamental issues are exposed: the process of reading, the link between the use of free metrics and the spread of graphic stylistic features in the twentieth century, the relationship with the phonetic component of language and with phonetic features in poetry, and the relationship of spatiality to the punctuation system. An insight is devoted to the graphic obligations imposed by the printing process and the relationship between poets and publishers in respecting mise en page choices for publication.