This thesis explores various redefinitions of the notions of tradition andudmodernity in the Italian critical debates of the 1920s.udIn the years immediately following the war and throughout the 1920s the problem ofudthe redefinition of the concepts of tradition and modernity appears to acquire preeminenceudwithin the critical debates. In the general atmosphere of the post-warud'return to order' and with a widespread feeling that the end of the war coincides withudthe beginning of a new epoch, many artists and intellectuals feel the necessity ofudredefining the terms of critical judgement in relation to the changed culturaludcircumstances. In this context, the definition of modernity is gradually deprived of itsudassociations with the concepts of 'the new' and progress and becomes strictlyudinterrelated with the notion of a return to tradition, interpreted as the continuation ofudthe dialogue with the past, which was interrupted by pre-war avant-garde artistic andudliterary excesses. Particular emphasis is placed on the varying politicization of theseudconcepts and their redefinition in terms of nationalism and internationalism.udThe complexities, contradictions and ambiguities created by such redefinitions areudexplored through the analysis of the periodicals Valori Plastici, La Ronda, CriticaudFascista, Il Selvaggio, 900, Il Baretti and Solaria, and of the critical work of EugenioudMontale, Ardengo Soffici and Luigi Pirandello, three very important figures, who areudsignificant participants in 1920s debates and have a prominent role in shaping theudculture of the decade.udThe notion of debate, within which the analysis of the concepts of tradition andudmodernity is inscribed, is broadly interpreted, taking into account the milieu of theudcultura militante during the inter-war period.udThe issues treated are problematized in the light of present-day scholarly debates,udwith a view to repositioning the material analysed and furthering such debates.
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