ABSTRACT
Writer and literary critic An eclectic left-wing figure in the Italian cultural scene, Siciliano has served as president of Italian Public Television (RAI) as well as contributing to newspapers, magazines and literary journals such as La Stampa, L’Avanti, Il Corriere della Sera, L’Espresso, Paragone, Tempo presente and Nuovi Argomenti. Like Pasolini, an intellectual he particularly admired, Siciliano also experimented with film directing. His literary production tends to be qualitatively uneven and includes several collections of short stories, (Racconti ambigui (Ambiguous Tales), 1963, and Dietro di me (Behind Me), 1971), and a novel, La coppia (The Couple, 1966). His critical activity, on the other hand, has always been particularly innovative and stimulating. With Prima della poesia (Before Poetry) (1965), he constructively polemicizes against an established and fossilized idea of literature, and then with Autobiografia letteraria (Literary Autobiography) (1970), he successfully manages to combine a Marxist and a psychoanalytical approach into a creative essay form.
