«(e con la storia mi scuso)». Giudici, gli anni Novanta: due esercizi di lettura

This article investigates the genesis of 1989 and Distici bosniaci, two poems by Giovanni Giudici, written in his late years and published in Quanto spera di campare Giovanni (Garzanti 1993). By scrutinizing Giudici’s diaries, type-written working papers, and the articles he wrote for the Italian newspaper Il Secolo XIX between 1989 and 1993, this work traces a picture of History in the 1990s, shaped by unfulfilled hopes, lies of the mass media, and virtual non-events. By taking into account major events, such as the fall of the Berlin Wall and the televised wars – the Gulf War and the Bosnian War –, this article will show the point of view of a prominent Italian poet who, at the end of the Twentieth century, was meditating on the end of private life and on injustice in collective time. The last section of this article will open up to a broader context, by focusing on how some of the decisive poetic voices of the 1900s dwelt on disenchantment with their times.