First issue 29 September 1945 | Final issue December 1947 | |
Categories Literary magazineCultural magazine Frequency Weekly (September 1945-May 1946)Monthly (May 1946-December 1947) | ||
Il Politecnico (meaning the Polytechnic in English) was an Italian language Communist culture and literary magazine published in Italy between 1945 and 1947. Its title was a reference to another Italian magazine with the same name established in 1839.
History and profile
Il Politecnico was first published in Milan as a weekly on 29 September 1945. Giulio Einaudi was the publisher and Elio Vittorini was the editor of the magazine. On 1 May 1946 the magazine began to be published monthly.
The idea behind the establishment of Il Politecnico was to rebuild Italian culture after the experience of Fascism. This idea was originally developed by communist Catholic philosopher Felice Balbo in 1945.
Il Politecnico also aimed at providing a democratic forum for literary discussions. The magazine rejected not to cover the work by non-Communist artists and featured translations of famous authors such as Ernest Hemingway, T. S. Eliot, Franz Kafka and James Joyce. The magazine also published photo-stories of Luigi Crocenzi. Italo Calvino was among the contributors and in fact, he started his career as journalist in the magazine.
Due its editorial policy Il Politecnico lost the support of the Communist Party and eventually, ceased publication in December 1947.