Desire and Resistance in Two Poems by Aldo Palazzeschi

by Kristin Szostek Chertoff

Although sexuality has become a common theme in studies of Aldo Palazzeschi’s work, criticism has not yet fully explored how some of his earliest poems interact with the prevailing cultural assumptions and attitudes circulating when they were written and first published. This study approaches two poems—“Habel Nassab” (1909) and “I fiori” (1913)—that portray a poet protagonist’s emotionally disturbing encounter with a man who dominates through femininity,