In 1938, Italian newspapers publshed lists of Jewish names to enable good
fascists to identify those they could no longer employ. I no longer have
any to hand, but they would be worth looking for. Oddly enough, Fortini
sounds Jewish as a number of Jewish names end in ino/ini/ani.
Jews becoming Christian did obtain some exemption from persecution for a
time. This provides some episodes in Giovanni Finzi-Contini's novel, "Il
piu' lungo viaggio di A. M."
Brian Moloney
On Fri, 29 Jan 1999, Cormac O Cuilleanain wrote:
> Gillian Sharman wrote:
> >Giorgio Bassani used the pseudonym Giacomo Marchi - I have a vague
> >idea Marchi was the family name of a female ancestor.
>
> ======================
>
> Some pseudonyms may have been dictated by political circumstances. Did
> Franco Lattes's change of surname to Fortini offer him any additional
> protection during the time of the racial laws? (I gather that in Italy
> after 1938, Jews could avoid some civil disabilities if they became
> Christians --- is this correct?)
>
> Pseudonyms seem to be a feature of Italian literary life anyway --- from
> the sobriquets of Renaissance academies up to Trilussa. Do all pseudonyms
> (in Italy, and elsewhere) tend towards choosing a national identity through
> a regular-sounding name? If Pincherle becomes Moravia, Schmitz becomes
> Svevo, is that different from Suckert becoming Malaparte? It's certainly
> different from Tranquilli becoming Silone.
>
> Are there any cases of non-Jewish writers opting for Jewish-sounding names,
> or Jewish writers opting for other Jewish-sounding names?
>
> Is it in _Take A Girl Like You_ that Kingsley Amis has a wonderfully stupid
> father who suspisicously guesses the "original" Jewish names of all the men
> his daughter meets? "Ah, yes, Standish. That would be 'Schtundisch', you
> know."
>
> In Ireland, a name like mine used to provoke the question: "What's that in
> English?" Not so much nowadays ...
>
> Cormac O Cuilleanain
> Trinity College Dublin
>
>
>
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