Dacia Maraini 

Guest of the ilb 2008

Dacia Maraini was born in Florence . In 1943 her parents moved with her to Japan, where her father carried out ethnological research. Due to their anti-fascist stance the family was interned in a concentration camp during the final two years of the war. In 1946 they managed to return to Italy, where Maraini grew up first in Bagheria in Sicily and later, her parents having split up, with her mother in Palermo. At the age of eighteen she moved to Rome to live with her father. There she published her first short stories in literary reviews and in 1957 was one of the founders of the literary rewiew »Tempo di letteratura«. Her first novel, »La vacanza« (1962; Eng. »The Holiday«, 1966) was translated into twelve languages. Using a light touch and set in post-Fascist Italy, it portrays an adolescent who discovers her sexuality in the summer holidays. The combination of a risqué topic with an unusual grace of portrayal, lively dialogues and gripping plots pervades Maraini’s whole work.

Following a short-lived marriage she became the partner of Alberto Moravia in 1963. With him she embarked on various journeys in the years that followed – in particular to Africa, but also to Asia and America – on which she was often accompanied by intellectual companions such as Pier Paolo Pasolini. Since the seventies Maraini has penned numerous essays, poems and very succesful plays and novels, which often describe sexuality from a female perspective, as well as broaching the topics of rape, incest and prostitution. The author was a member of feminist groups and was involved in founding several theatre groups. Her own plays – particularly well known is »Maria Stuarda« (1975; in: »Only Prostitutes Marry in May«, 1993) – have been staged in many countries in Europe and North and South America. Pier Paolo Pasolini and Margarethe von Trotta are amongst the directors for whom she has written film scripts.

Since the nineties several of Maraini’s prose works have found their way onto bestseller lists, including the autobiographically inspired »Bagheria« (1993; Eng. »Bagheria«, 1994) and »La lunga vita di Marianna Ucrìa« (1990; Eng. »The Silent Duchess«, 1992), which is also set in Sicily and describes the emancipation of a deaf-mute aristocrat in the eighteenth century. The oppressive themes of »Voci« (1994; Eng. »Voices«, 1997) and the prizewinning collection of short stories »Buio« (1999; Eng. »Darkness«, 2002), are child abuse, sexual violence and human abysses disguised by a bourgeois façade, all of which revolve around the police superintendent Adele Sofia.

Marainis most recent novel, »Colomba« (2004) takes the disappearance of a young woman as a starting point to chronicle a hundred years of family history, making use of overlaying narrative voices and plot elements. The author has been honoured with many awards, including the Premio Formentor, the Premio Campiello and the Premio Strega. She regularly publishes articles on politics and society in newspapers such as »Corriere della Sera«, »La Stampa« and »Il Messaggero«.

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