Angela Bianchini (; 21 April 1921 – 27 October 2018) was an Italian fiction writer and literary critic of

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

descent. She grew up in Italy and emigrated to the United States in 1941, after Mussolini's openly

anti-Semitic Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...

racial laws were enacted.

Education and early career

Bianchini spent her "years in waiting" (to use Giovanni Macchia's expression) at

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...

where she completed a Ph.D. in French Linguistics under the guidance and supervision of

Leo Spitzer Leo Spitzer (; 7 February 1887 – 16 September 1960) was an Austrian Romanist and Hispanist, philologist, and an influential and prolific literary critic. He was known for his emphasis on stylistics. Along with Erich Auerbach, Spitzer is widel ...

. The presence and lectures of a group of Spanish exiles (among whom

Pedro Salinas Pedro Salinas y Serrano (27 November 1891 – 4 December 1951) was a Spanish poet, a member of the Generation of '27, as well as a university teacher, scholar and literary critic. In 1937, he delivered the Turnbull lectures at Johns Hopkins ...

and

Jorge Guillén Jorge Guillén Álvarez (; 18 January 18936 February 1984) was a Spanish poet, a member of the Generation of '27, a university teacher, a scholar and a literary critic. In 1957-1958, he delivered the Charles Eliot Norton lectures at Harvard Un ...

) determined some of her major interests in the field of Spanish literature: in particular the great 20th century poetry and 19th century novel. After her return to Rome after the war, Bianchini was attracted to the world of communication and collaborated not only with such prestigious periodicals as '' Il Mondo'' of

Mario Pannunzio Mario Pannunzio (5 March 1910 – 10 February 1968) was an Italian journalist and politician. As a journalist he was the director in charge of the daily newspaper Risorgimento Liberale (''Liberal reawakening'') in the 1940s and of the weekly p ...

, but also with

RAI RAI – Radiotelevisione italiana (; commercially styled as Rai since 2000; known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane) is the national public broadcasting company of Italy, owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. RAI operates many ter ...

(the Italian Broadcasting Corporation). For RAI she wrote several cultural broadcasts, radio plays and original radio and T.V. programs. She had many literary studies to her credit. She was one of the first literary critics to study serial novels in ''La luce a gas e il feuilleton: due invenzioni dell'Ottocento'' (Liguori, 1969, reprinted in 1989). She translated ''Medieval French Novels'' (''Romanzi medievali d'amore e d'avventura'', Grandi Libri Garzanti, now reprinted and in

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), and edited a ''Renaissance correspondence (Lettere della fiorentina Alessandra Macinghi Strozzi'', Garzanti, 1989). In her book ''Voce donna'' (Frassinelli, 1979, reprinted in 1996) she combined a study of feminism with her interests in biography and in narrative technique. For the last thirty years of her life she contributed to ''

La Stampa ''La Stampa'' (meaning ''The Press'' in English) is an Italian daily newspaper published in Turin, Italy. It is distributed in Italy and other European nations. It is one of the oldest newspapers in Italy. History and profile The paper was fou ...

'' (Turin) and to its book-review section ''Tuttolibri'', especially on Spanish themes. Bianchini died of natural causes in Rome on 27 October 2018 at the age of 97.

Works

Bianchini began her career in fiction with the short stories of ''Lungo equinozio'' (Lerici Ed., 1962; Senator Borletti Prize for a First Work, 1962), which deal with the lives of women who live in Italy and in America. Here for the first time she explored her recurring theme of departures and arrivals.

Giorgio Caproni Giorgio Caproni (Livorno, 7 January 1912 – 22 January 1990, Rome) was an Italian poet, literary critic and translator, especially from French. His work was also part of the literature event in the art competition at the 1948 Summer Olympics. ...

, in a book review, commented enthusiastically on Bianchini's technique and on the texture of her stories, composed of everyday sentences and of scattered events against which stand out significant figures and particular historical moments.

Carlo Bo Carlo Bo (25 January 1911 – 21 July 2001) was an Italian poet, literary critic, distinghuished humanist, a professor and Life senator of Italy (from 1984). Biography Bo was born on January 25, 1911, in Sestri Levante, Italy. From 1929 to 1 ...

, meanwhile, praised Bianchini's knowledge of the human heart and her sincerity and literary authenticity.''L'Europeo'', 7 October 1962 Bianchini contributed the short story "Alta estate notturna" to the anthology of women writers ''Il pozzo segreto'' (ed. M. R. Cutrufelli, R. Guacci, M. Rusconi, Giunti, 1993) and the short story "Anni dopo" ("Years Later") to the anthology ''Nella città proibita'' (ed. M. R. Cutrufelli, Tropea, 1997. ''In the Forbidden City''

University of Chicago Press The University of Chicago Press is the largest and one of the oldest university presses in the United States. It is operated by the University of Chicago and publishes a wide variety of academic titles, including ''The Chicago Manual of Style'', ...

, 2000).

Novels

Bianchini also penned several novels. * ''Le Nostre Distanze'' (Mondadori 1965. Reprinted by Einaudi in 2001) * ''La Ragazza in Nero'' (Camunia 1990, Frassinelli 2004, Rapallo Prize 1990, translated as ''The Girl in Black'' by G. Sanguinetti Katz and A. Urbancic, Canadian Society for Italian Studies 2002) * ''Capo d'Europa'', (Camunia 1990, reprinted by Frassinelli Tascabile 1998, finalist for the Strega Prize 1991, Donna-Città di Roma Prize 1992, translated as ''The Edge of Europe'' by A. M. Jeannet and D. Castronuovo, University of Nebraska Press 2000) *''Le Labbra tue Sincere'' (Frassinelli 1995) *''Un amore sconveniente'' (Frassinelli 1999, Castiglioncello Costa degli Etruschi Prize 2000, finalist for the Rapallo Prize 2000 ) *''Nevada'' (Frassinelli 2002) *''Alessandra e Lucrezia. Destini femminili nella Firenze del Quattrocento'' (Mondadori, 2005)

References

Bibliography

* Jeannet, Angela M. "Afterword:Exiles and Returns in Angela Bianchini's Fiction" in Angela Bianchini. ''The Edge of Europe''. Trans. A.M. Jeannet and D. Castronuovo. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 2000, pp. 105–137. * Barberi Squarotti, Giorgio. "Bianchini: fine di una solitudine." ''La Stampa'', 3 March 1990. * Cutrufelli, Maria Rosa. "Quel sottile bisogno di vita quotidiana" ''L'Unita'', 1 April 1990. {{DEFAULTSORT:Bianchini, Angela 1921 births 2018 deaths Italian emigrants to the United States 20th-century Italian Jews Italian literary critics Italian women literary critics Italian women novelists Italian women short story writers Jewish women writers Johns Hopkins University alumni 20th-century Italian short story writers 20th-century Italian women writers 21st-century Italian short story writers 21st-century Italian women writers Writers from Rome