Valentina Marchesi

In 1933 Gianfranco Contini wrote an essay on Eugenio Montale’s Ossi di seppia (first published in 1925; then, enriched with new texts, in 1928 and 1931). In these years Contini dedicated two other essays to Montale: the former in 1938, the latter in 1940 to criticize Alfredo Gargiulo’s interpretation of Montale’s Le occasioni. These essays marked the beginning of an important friendship between the young scholar and the poet: while Montale created his new works, Le occasioni and La bufera (to be published in 1956), Contini experienced his method to read modern and ancient authors. This dialogue, throughout the Thirties and the Forties, led them to reflect on Italian and European literature, from a point of view both poetic and critical, on the assumption that poetry and criticism belong to the same cultural framework.