A Conversation with Dacia Maraini
Speaker(s): Dacia Maraini (award-winning novelist, playwright, and activist)
Please join us on Friday, October 21, 2022 for a conversation with award-winning novelist, playwright, and activist Dacia Maraini. Author of over twenty novels, numerous plays, and several collections of poetry, Maraini’s sixty years of writing and political activism have seen her recognized as a vital figure in contemporary Italian literature, and a fierce voice for the oppressed in society beyond.
Born in Florence in 1936, Dacia Maraini has for many years worked as one of Italy’s most committed and widely-acclaimed feminist authors. She has won various awards in recognition of her literary contributions: the Formentor Prize for L'età del malessere (1963); the Premio Fregene for Isolina (1985); the Premio Campiello and Book of the Year Award for La lunga vita di Marianna Ucrìa (1990); and the Premio Strega for Buio (1999). She co-founded the Teatro del Porcospino in the 1960s and established the feminist experimental theatre La Maddalena in Rome in 1973. Several films have been made from her books, and she herself has written screenplays for directors such as Pier Paolo Pasolini, Marco Ferreri, Carlo Di Palma, and Margarethe Von Trotta. In 2013, Irish Braschi's biographical documentary I Was Born Travelling recounted the story of Maraini's life, focusing in particular on her childhood imprisonment in a concentration camp in Japan during World War II, and the journeys she made around the world with her partner Alberto Moravia and close friends Pasolini and Maria Callas.
The conversation will be held in Room 252 of Pigott Hall, beginning at 10:30am. Coffee and bagels will be provided. All are welcome, and we look forward to seeing you there.
Hosted by the Department of French and Italian in collaboration with the Italian Modernities Lecture Series.