Borgese, Giuseppe Antonio (1882–1952)

Italian writer and critic. His novel Rubè (1921) set out to portray the duel between the warlike idealism and the basic pacifism of the Italians. He was an opponent of fascism, and in 1931 went to the USA.

Borgese was born in Sicily. At the age of 20 he wrote a Storia della critica romantica/History of Romantic Criticism in Italy and followed this in 1909 with a study of the work of Gabriele D'Annunzio. In exile he became professor of Italian literature at Chicago University.

His many other works include plays, Poesie/Poetry (1922), Ottocento europeo/Nineteenth-century Europe (1927), Il senso della letteratura italiana/The Sense of Italian Literature (1931), Golia: marcia del fascismo/Goliath: The March of Fascism (1937), The City of Man (1940; in collaboration with the German writer Thomas Mann), and Common Cause (1943). Novelle (1950) is a collection of short stories.