He lived between the desire to live and the irresistible urge to commit suicide: Who is Cesare Pavese?
Cesare Pavese is one of the leading figures of 20th Century Italian Literature. He is a poet, writer, and also translator. He is known for his novels, stories, and poems that deal with topics such as loneliness, alienation, and exclusion.
Cesare Pavese was born on September 9, 1908 in Italy. He became interested in reading, writing, and literature at an early age and graduated from the Department of Literature at the University of Turin. While at university, he met politician Antonio Gramsci, and his ideas greatly influenced Pavese's worldview. During World War II, he was arrested in Italy in 1935, then exiled to Calabria and released in 1936. In 1948, he published his book titled Prison, which bears the traces of this period he lived in. The house he lived in while in exile is still used for tourism purposes today.
Cesare Pavese's struggle with life is his struggle with depression and loneliness that lasted throughout his life. Pavese fought political struggles at an early age and witnessed the devastating effects of the war as Italy entered the Second World War. During this process, both the brutality of the war and the social and political troubles experienced in Italy after the war affected Pavese's mood.
Cesare Pavese (9 September 1908 – 27 August 1950) was an Italian novelist, poet, short story writer, translator, literary critic, and essayist. He is often referred to as one of the most influential Italian writers of his time.
On the other hand, Pavese has been experiencing a civil war that lasted throughout his life. Especially in his diaries, it is seen that he is in deep loneliness. Cesare Pavese ended his struggle for life in 1950. At the age of 42, he committed suicide in his hotel room in Turin.
Pavese's World of Literature
In the works of Cesare Pavese, who is considered the founder of the new realism movement in Italian literature, there are effects of the great loneliness and sadness that surround people. He wrote works in the genres of novels, poems, and essays, and dealt with loneliness, despair, and the struggle for existence in his works. He was also interested in American and English Literature and made translations into the Italian language. Pavese's most important works include The Striving for Life, Among Lonely Women, and The Moon and the Bonfires.
Female characters appear frequently in Cesare Pavese's works. The characters are generally women who struggle with the emotional addictions of the male characters, experience loneliness, helplessness, and hopelessness, and try to direct their lives. The problems Pavese experienced in his relationships were also the source of the themes of loneliness, helplessness, and hopelessness in his works. According to some critics; The female characters in his novels are reflections of the author's relationships with the women in his own life.
Pavese has an important place in Italian Literature and World Literature, and his works and life have influenced many writers. His works have been translated into different languages and read in many countries.