D'Annunzio and Argentina: From Elitism to Mass Nationalism

Abstract

This chapter examines the complex relationship between Gabriele D’Annunzio and Argentina. It explores references to Argentina in D’Annunzio’s writing, his relationship to the Italo-Argentinian com-munity, and offers a critical journey through key moments in the reception of D’Annunzio’s work in a country with one of the largest Italian communities in the world. Italian migration to Argentina, as I shall show, played a marginal role as a subject for D’Annunzio’s work, but a pivotal role for the poet’s access to the Spanish-speaking world. Among the strange characters that stand out as intermedi-aries between D’Annunzio and Argentina are Guido Boggiani, who inspired one of the first representations of the Italian emigrant as a literary topos, and Giovanni del Guzzo, a real life immigrant who organised a trip to Argentina for D’Annunzio that was, however, never realised.