Born on 13 November 1936 in Fiesole, the writer is one of the most influential voices in Italian literature. She put women's stories and the denunciation of inequalities at the center of her novels. We retrace her life and her career, from her beginnings to the meetings that marked her, passing through the civil commitment that went hand in hand with her production
Dacia Maraini turns 90. In his production he has ranged from narrative, through poetry, theater and non-fiction, always keeping the condition of women and the analysis of contemporary society with its distortions at the centre. Over the decades, often digging through historical research, he has built stratified and complex female characters.
The first years
Born in Fiesole on 13 November 1936, Dacia Maraini is the daughter of the orientalist Fosco Maraini who moved to Japan in 1939 for research and teaching purposes, bringing his wife and children with him. Between 1943 and 1946, Maraini was interned with her family in the Japanese concentration camp of Nagoyo together with other Italians accused of treason: her parents had refused to swear loyalty to the Republic of Salò. Her return to Italy took her first to Bagheria, Sicily, and then to Rome, where she began her career. At 21 he founded the literary magazine "Tempo della literature" together with others and collaborated with periodicals such as "Nuovi Argomenti" and il "Mondo".
Literature and civil commitment
In 1962 she made her debut with the novel "The Holiday", in which the protagonist, against the backdrop of the Second World War, is a fourteen-year-old girl discovering her femininity and sexuality. At the same time he cultivated a passion for theatre, collaborating with various experimental groups and founding theater companies together with other writers. In the second part of the Sixties he dedicated himself to writing theatrical texts, including "Maria Stuarda", "Dialogue of a prostitute with her client" and "Stravaganza". In the meantime she married the Milanese painter Lucio Pozzi in 1959, but archived the marriage after a few years and was annulled in 1963. In 1962 Alberto Moravia, a family friend, left his wife, the writer Elsa Morante, for her. Even after the end of the relationship between Maraini and Moravia, a relationship of esteem will remain. In 1963 he wrote the novel "The Age of Malaise" (1963), the story of Enrica, a 17-year-old girl who lives in a difficult neighborhood of Rome and is in search of her identity. "Memories of a Thief" from 1972 is a prisoner of friendship with Pier Paolo Pasolini who read it and then asked her to collaborate on the screenplay of the film "The Flower of a Thousand and One Nights". From that moment they became particularly close and shared several trips, remaining close until Pasolini's assassination in 1975. In the same decade he published "Donna in Guerra" (1975).
Maraini's literary production is characterized by a realistic style with mainly female protagonists at the center and is crossed by the theme of the condition of women and the repression to which they are subjected, of childhood and adolescence, of the world of the last. Alongside her literary path, Maraini was central in the spread of feminism, of which she was a pioneer in Italy. He was a key figure in the great season of referendums and battles over divorce and abortion. Without ever having political affiliations, Dacia Maraini has dedicated time to writing and thoughts, constantly participating in the debate.
"The long life of Marianna Ucrìa"
The Eighties are marked by "Isolina", in which she brings to light a forgotten crime story: the murder of Isolina Canuti, a nineteen-year-old from Verona, whose body was found dismembered in January 1900 in the waters of the Adige river. In 1990 "The long life of Marianna Ucrìa", a historical novel in which he reconstructs the biography of one of his ancestor, winner of the Campiello Prize and which is considered by many to be his masterpiece, opens a very prolific phase. The Sicilian setting remains in the subsequent book "Bagheria" (1993). It is instead a mystery and psychological thriller "Voci" from 1994), for which she was awarded the international Flaiano prize. He continues with the epistolary novel "Dolce per sé" (1997) and the volume of short stories Buio (1999) with which he won the Strega prize.
The 2000s
In 2007 he published "The game of the universe", in which he retraces his father's path through writings, extracts from diaries and notes. In "Hasty Steps" she addresses the issue of violence against women starting from the story of a little girl who grew up in a village in Tibet. "The Last Night Train" also dates back to the same year, 2008, which revolves around a young journalist who in the 1950s sets out in search of a childhood friend who disappeared during the war. In 2009 with "The Girl from Via Maqueda" (2009) he created a portrait of the post-war generation between disillusions and hopes for the future. In the travel writings collected in "La seduzione dell'altrove" of 2010 he has the opportunity to enclose his life as an itinerant who traveled around the world so much, while in "La grande festa" of 2011 he questions himself about memory. Maraini has also signed several essays, poetic collections, plays, screenplays, demonstrating over the years his versatility and ability to adapt to different forms of writing. In 2012 she was awarded the Campiello Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award.
Among his most recent works that bring together his focus on historical reconstruction and the exploration of female figures: the biography "Chiara of Assisi. In Praise of Disobedience" (2013); the novels "The Little Girl and the Dreamer" (2015) and "Three Women" (2017). In particular, the autobiographical text "Happy body. Stories of women, revolutions and a son who goes away" (2018) stands out in which she recounts the tragic spontaneous termination of her pregnancy in the seventh month in the 1960s and addresses her unborn son. Always in the wake of his autobiographical writing "Caro Pier Paolo" (2022), his intimate portrait of Pasolini and the text "My life. Japan, 1943. Memoirs of an Italian girl in a prison camp". In 2022 it will be released in bookstores with in 2023 "In the name of Hypatia. Reflections on female destiny" pages in which Maraini makes the nameless women of every country fighting for dignity speak. At the end of 2025 he also published the essay "Secret Writings", edited by Michelangelo La Luna, focused on female figures who used writing as a tool of liberation. "Sour and sweet. A life in words and images" from 2026 is a celebratory memoir published to celebrate his 90 years, through stories, reflections and photographs from his personal archive.
