Giovanna Foà (May 27, 1910,

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

– December 1997, Milan) was an Italian scholar and translator, and a Professor of English at the

Bocconi University Bocconi University ( it, Università Commerciale Luigi Bocconi, ) is a private university in Milan, Italy. Bocconi provides education in the fields of economics, finance, law, management, political science, public administration and computer sci ...

, Milan. She was a winner of the

British Academy The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the same year. It is now a fellowship of more than 1,000 leading scholars span ...

Rose Mary Crawshay Prize The Rose Mary Crawshay Prize is a literary prize for female scholars, inaugurated in 1888 by the British Academy. Description The prize, set up in 1888, is said by the British Academy to be the only UK literary prize specifically for female sch ...

(1934) for her work ''Lord Byron, Poeta e Carbonaro''.

Life

Giovanna Foà was born in Milan to Dino Foà and Ester Rouf, one of four children. She graduated in Literature at the

University of Milan The University of Milan ( it, Università degli Studi di Milano; la, Universitas Studiorum Mediolanensis), known colloquially as UniMi or Statale, is a public research university in Milan, Italy. It is one of the largest universities in Europe ...

in 1933, followed by a diploma in English in 1934. Her thesis on Italian influences on

Byron George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), known simply as Lord Byron, was an English romantic poet and Peerage of the United Kingdom, peer. He was one of the leading figures of the Romantic movement, and h ...

and his own association with the conspirators ''Carbonari'' won the Rose Mary Crawshay Prize (1934), and was published the following year. As a Jew, she was expelled from teaching at the Liceo Scientifico in

Pisa Pisa ( , or ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for its leaning tower, the cit ...

, whereupon she went into exile in France and then to England, where she remained throughout the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. From 1939-40 to 1945 she was an announcer on Radio London. She maintained contact with English women's associations, especially the

British Federation of University Women The British Federation of Women Graduates (BFWG) was founded in 1907 as the British Federation of University Women (BFUW) to "afford a means of communication and of united action in matters affecting the interest of women". It was renamed the Brit ...

. Foà's brother Alberto was murdered by the Nazis at

Auschwitz Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...

. In 1946 she returned to Italy as a lecturer at

's Faculty of Languages, where she worked for the next 25 years. In 1947, she married Alfredo Cantoni (1901–1981). Foà wrote on

Elizabeth Barrett Browning Elizabeth Barrett Browning (née Moulton-Barrett; 6 March 1806 – 29 June 1861) was an English poet of the Victorian era, popular in Britain and the United States during her lifetime. Born in County Durham, the eldest of 12 children, Elizabet ...

's interests in Italian affairs in her 1954 work ''Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Italy''. Foà died in December 1997 at Milan.

Selected works

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Foa, Giovanna Italian–English translators 1910 births 1997 deaths University of Milan alumni Academic staff of Bocconi University Rose Mary Crawshay Prize winners