Alda Merini
Encyclopedia
Alda Merini was a renowned Italian
writer
and poet
.
She was born in Milan and died there aged 78.
Alda Merini started her poetic career when she was really young and soon she gained the attention and the admiration of many famous italian writers, like Giorgio Manganelli
, Salvatore Quasimodo
and Pier Paolo Pasolini
. Her intense, passionate and mystic writing style was influenced especially by the dutch poet Rainer Maria Rilke
.
Her verses are mainly about her long and dramatic hospedalization in mental home (since 1964 to the late 1970s
), and the divine role of madness in the creative expression. One of her masterpiece is L'altra verità. Diario di una diversa ("The other truth. Diary of a dropout"), Scheiwiller, 1986.
In 1996 Alda Merini was proposed by the "Académie Francaise
" for the Nobel Prize in Literature
. She received the prize of the Italian Republic in the area of poetry.
The day of her death, the President of the Italian Republic
, Giorgio Napolitano
, called her an "inspired and limpid poetic voice."
Italian people
The Italian people are an ethnic group that share a common Italian culture, ancestry and speak the Italian language as a mother tongue. Within Italy, Italians are defined by citizenship, regardless of ancestry or country of residence , and are distinguished from people...
writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
and poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
.
She was born in Milan and died there aged 78.
Alda Merini started her poetic career when she was really young and soon she gained the attention and the admiration of many famous italian writers, like Giorgio Manganelli
Giorgio Manganelli
Giorgio Manganelli was an Italian journalist, avant-garde writer and literary critic. A native of Milan, he was one of the leaders of the avant-garde literary movement in Italy in the 1960s. He was a baroque and expressionist writer. Manganelli translated Edgar Allan Poe's complete stories and...
, Salvatore Quasimodo
Salvatore Quasimodo
Salvatore Quasimodo was an Italian author and poet. In 1959 he won the Nobel Prize for Literature "for his lyrical poetry, which with classical fire expresses the tragic experience of life in our own times". Along with Giuseppe Ungaretti and Eugenio Montale, he is one of the foremost Italian poets...
and Pier Paolo Pasolini
Pier Paolo Pasolini
Pier Paolo Pasolini was an Italian film director, poet, writer, and intellectual. Pasolini distinguished himself as a poet, journalist, philosopher, linguist, novelist, playwright, filmmaker, newspaper and magazine columnist, actor, painter and political figure...
. Her intense, passionate and mystic writing style was influenced especially by the dutch poet Rainer Maria Rilke
Rainer Maria Rilke
René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke , better known as Rainer Maria Rilke, was a Bohemian–Austrian poet. He is considered one of the most significant poets in the German language...
.
Her verses are mainly about her long and dramatic hospedalization in mental home (since 1964 to the late 1970s
1970s
File:1970s decade montage.png|From left, clockwise: US President Richard Nixon doing the V for Victory sign after his resignation from office after the Watergate scandal in 1974; Refugees aboard a US naval boat after the Fall of Saigon, leading to the end of the Vietnam War in 1975; The 1973 oil...
), and the divine role of madness in the creative expression. One of her masterpiece is L'altra verità. Diario di una diversa ("The other truth. Diary of a dropout"), Scheiwiller, 1986.
In 1996 Alda Merini was proposed by the "Académie Francaise
Académie française
L'Académie française , also called the French Academy, is the pre-eminent French learned body on matters pertaining to the French language. The Académie was officially established in 1635 by Cardinal Richelieu, the chief minister to King Louis XIII. Suppressed in 1793 during the French Revolution,...
" for the Nobel Prize in Literature
Nobel Prize in Literature
Since 1901, the Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded annually to an author from any country who has, in the words from the will of Alfred Nobel, produced "in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction"...
. She received the prize of the Italian Republic in the area of poetry.
The day of her death, the President of the Italian Republic
President of the Italian Republic
The President of the Italian Republic is the head of state of Italy and, as such, is intended to represent national unity and guarantee that Italian politics comply with the Constitution. The president's term of office lasts for seven years....
, Giorgio Napolitano
Giorgio Napolitano
Giorgio Napolitano is an Italian politician who has been the 11th President of Italy since 2006. A long-time member of the Italian Communist Party and later the Democrats of the Left, he served as President of the Chamber of Deputies from 1992 to 1994 and as Minister of the Interior from 1996 to...
, called her an "inspired and limpid poetic voice."