ABSTRACT
In this chapter I discuss literary orality in the context of writing by young Italian authors in the 1990s. Literary criticism of these texts has often been informed by postmodernist theory, focussing on the mixture of 'high' and 'low' cultures in this fiction. I concentrate on the latter aspect of these texts, paying particular attention to how 'oral' and 'youth' language varieties manifest themselves in this fiction. In so doing, I discuss them in the context of what linguists refer to as the neo-standardisation of Italian language: i.e. the progressive acceptance of 'low' and informal linguistic elements in varieties previously considered bastions of linguistic correctness and elevated style. 1 Some literary critics, especially those associated with the Italian literary avant-garde movement, the Gruppo 63, in the 1960s, refer to this linguistic style as 'stile basso', which articulates '[l]'intento di allargare il gesto linguistico, di forzarlo oltre le buone regole'. 2 Attempts to continue this 'abbassamento linguistico' in the 1990s, by transgressing the conventions of the written language, have often been interpreted negatively by contemporary critics, and perceived as a debasement of literary language. I will argue that, in contrast to the views expressed by these critics, the integration of these forms into the written language reflects a skilled and conscious 'neo-standardisation' of the written language. I first take a general overview of the roots of the neo-standardisation of the literary language in the 1990s, which lie in the young Italian authors of the 1980s. I then analyse a text from the 1990s by Tiziano Scarpa, considering first the critical response to writers of this generation and then looking more closely at the ways in which Scarpa represents 'orality' in his writing.
