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Renata Viganò (1900–1976) was an Italian writer best known for her neo-realist novel L'Agnese va a morire, published in 1949.^[1] She was an active participant in the Italian Resistance movement during World War II and included fictionalized accounts of her experiences as a partisan in her written work.^[2]

Life

Viganò was born in Bologna on 17 June 1900. As an adolescent, she published two books of poetry, Ginestra in fiore (1912) and Piccola fiamma (1915).^[3]

Vigano was a member of the Italian Communist Party.^[4] During World War II, she participated in the resistance as a nurse and courier in Emilia-Romagna region.^[5] Together with her husband, Antonio Meluschi, she helped to organize armed resistance activities in the Po Valley.^[6]

Viganò published several novels in the postwar period, including L'Agnese va a morire (1949) which tells the story of a washerwoman living in the countryside who joins the Communist resistance. The book became popular among Italian Communists at the time and established Viganò's position as a literary figure in the community.^[6] It won the Italian Viareggio Prize and was adapted into the film L'agnese va a morire in 1976 by Giuliano Montaldo.^[3]

In addition to L'Agnese, much of Viganò's other work also focuses on themes of labor, resistance and women's role in Italian society.^[4] She wrote two collections of short stories (including Matrimonio in brigata, 1976, published in English as Partisan Wedding) and a reference volume about women who participated in the resistance (Donne nella Resistenza).^[7] She also worked as a journalist, contributing to L'Unità, Rinascita, Corriere Padano and Noi donne.

In the post-war period, her house in via Mascarella in Bologna was frequented by intellectuals such as Pier Paolo Pasolini, Sibilla Aleramo, Antonio Meluschi [it] and Nella Nobili, former partisans and students.^[8]

From 1951 to 1955, she wrote an advice column for Noi donne on topics related to womanhood and motherhood aimed at leftist women.^[9] In 1952, she published Mondine, a collection of personal essays about the so-called female mondina workers and the struggle to improve their conditions.^[4]

Viganò died in Bologna on 23 April 1976.^[10] In 2018, the city of Bologna in collaboration with the Associazione Nazionale Partigiani d'Italia (ANPI, National Association of Italian Partisans) erected a plaque commemorating the longtime home of Viganò and her husband.^[11]

Works

Ginestra in fiore, 1913^[6]
Piccola flamma, 1916
Il lume spento, 1933
L'Agnese va a morire, 1949
Mondine, 1952
Arriva la cicogna, 1954
Donne della Resistenza, 1955
Ho conosciuto Ciro, 1959
Una storia di ragazze, 1962
Matrimonio in brigata, 1976; English translation published 1999
Rosario, 1984 (posthumous)

References

^ Branciforte, Suzanne (1999). "Introduction: Renata Viganò Life and Works". In Viganò, Renata (ed.). Partisan Wedding: Stories. University of Missouri Press. pp. 1-17. ISBN 9780826212283.
^ McPhee, Jenny (2 January 2000). "Italy's Women Warriors". The New York Times. Retrieved 29 December 2018.
- Wood, Sharon (1995). "From Fascism to Reconstruction". Italian Women's Writing, 1860–1994. A&C Black. p. 114.
^ ^a ^b "Renata Viganò". Biblioteca Salaborsa (in Italian). Retrieved 29 December 2018.
^ ^a ^b ^c Ruberto, Laura E. (2009). Gramsci, migration, and the representation of women's work in Italy and the U.S. Lexington Books. pp. 40–47. ISBN 9780739144329.
^ Branciforte, Suzanne (1999). "Introduction: Renata Viganò Life and Works". In Viganò, Renata (ed.). Partisan Wedding: Stories. University of Missouri Press. p. 2. ISBN 9780826212283.
- Pugliese, Stanislao (2004). "November 1943: Renata Viganò". Fascism, Anti-Fascism, and the Resistance in Italy: 1919 to the Present. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. p. 228. ISBN 9780742579712.
^ ^a ^b ^c Brunori Deigan, Federica (2006). "Renata Viganò (1900-1976)". In Marrone, Gaetana (ed.). Encyclopedia of Italian Literary Studies. Routledge. pp. 1989–1991. ISBN 9781135455293.
^ Branciforte, Suzanne (1999). "Introduction: Renata Viganò Life and Works". In Viganò, Renata (ed.). Partisan Wedding: Stories. University of Missouri Press. p. 3. ISBN 9780826212283.
^ "Nella Nobili". Bologna Online (in Italian). Retrieved 13 February 2022.
^ Morris, Penelope (2018). "Problems and Prescriptions: Motherhood and Mammismo in Postwar Italian Advice Columns and Fiction". La Mamma : interrogating a national stereotype. Springer. pp. 86–87. ISBN 9781137542564.
^ "All'Archiginnasio l'archivio di Renata Viganò e Antonio Meluschi" [At the Archiginnasio the archive of Renata Viganò and Antonio Meluschi] (in Italian). Istituzione Biblioteche di Bologna. Archived from the original on 9 January 2019. Retrieved 28 January 2024.
^ "Una targa in via Mascarella per Renata Viganò, partigiana e scrittrice" [A plaque in via Mascarella for Renata Viganò, partisan and writer]. La Repubblica (in Italian). 17 June 2018. Retrieved 29 December 2018.