Sibilla Aleramo

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Sibilla Aleramo
Sibilla Aleramo, Rome, 1913
Born	Marta Felicina Faccio (1876-08-14)14 August 1876 Alessandria, Kingdom of Italy
Died	(1960-01-13)13 January 1960 Rome, Italy
Occupation	Writer feminist
Notable awards	Viareggio Prize

Sibilla Aleramo (born Marta Felicina Faccio; 14 August 1876 – 13 January 1960) was an Italian feminist writer and poet best known for her autobiographical depictions of life as a woman in late 19th century Italy.

Life and career

Aleramo was born as Marta Felicina Faccio (a.k.a. "Rina") in Alessandria, Piedmont, and grew up in Milan. At 11, she moved with her family to Civitanova Marche, where her father had been appointed manager of a glass factory. Unable to continue her education beyond primary school, Aleramo continued to study on her own, seeking advice from her former teacher about what to read. While employed in the same factory where her father worked, she was raped in an empty office room by Ulderico Pierangeli, a co-worker ten years her senior, when she was only 15. Rina did not tell her parents about the event, and when Pierangeli asked for her hand, she was persuaded by her family to marry him. A year and a half later, at 17, she had her first and only child, Walter.^[1]

Pierangeli was abusive and violent and in 1901 Aleramo moved to

In 1908, while still involved with Cena, she met Cordula "Lina" Poletti at a suffragette's congress. The two women started a relationship, later recounted in the novel Il passaggio (The Crossing, 1919), a book in which Aleramo also modified some of the events told in Una donna, arguing that Giovanni Cena had originally convinced her to slightly change her story. Aleramo was one of the contributors to Florence-based magazine Il Marzocco^[3] and Lidel, which was in circulation in the period 1919–1935.^[4]

In the following years, Aleramo became one of Italy's leading

Aleramo famously said that she felt like she lived three lives. The first one, as a mother and wife, was outlined in her novel Una donna. Her second one was when she volunteered in a shelter for homeless people in Rome run by the Unione Femminile and was active in feminist organizations.[6] Her 'third life' consisted of the 30 years she spent writing about her life experiences in her work.^[6] Aleramo died in Rome at the age of 83.

Legacy

Aleramo's life is mostly significant for her trail-blazing trajectory as an independent woman and artist, and as an individual who lived through different ages (Liberal Italy, Fascism, Post-World War II, the advent of the Italian Republic) while always maintaining cultural and political visibility. Her personal correspondence with Poletti has, in more recent years, been studied due to their open-minded view on homosexual relationships. Aleramo's first book in particular, Una donna, is considered a classic of Italian literature, and the first outspokenly feminist novel written by an Italian author.

Selected works

References