Maria Rosa Cutrufelli


Maria Rosa Cutrufelli is an Italian writer and journalist.

Biography

Born in Messina and raised between Sicily and Florence, she studied in Bologna and decided to live in Rome. She graduated in literature from the University of Bologna with a thesis on the structure of the novel. Roberto Roversi and Italo Calvino gave her advice after reading her thesis. After her university studies, she collaborated with various critical and literary magazines. She founded, and directed for twelve years, Tuttestorie, a magazine centered around "racconti, letture, trame di donne". She edited some story anthologies and wrote radio dramas for RAI; among them, Lontano da casa was published in book form by Rai Libri in 1997. In 1984 in Rome, she thought up and organized the first exhibition of books with female authors and taught "Teoria e pratica della scrittura creativa" at Sapienza University of Rome.
Her books have been translated into about twenty languages.
Cutrufelli is active in the feminist movement and has always been attentive to problems concerning the female condition. In the seventies she wrote various texts on the issue of work, women's emancipation, and a study on the question of pornography and prostitution. She chose women's point of view because it is that of "anche nella propria terra, anche nella propria casa, può sentirsi in esilio, straniera e nemica, sperimentando in questo modo direttamente – e a volte duramente – la necessità del cambiamento, di una frattura culturale, di un dialogo con le altre".
“Even in her own land, in her own house, she can feel exiled, a stranger and enemy, directly experiencing in this way – and sometimes severely – the necessity for change, of a cultural divide, of dialogue with other women".
Aware of the impacts of word choice and language traps, Cutrufelli doesn't love the definition "letteratura femminile" and prefers to speak of writing "firma femminile" to not hide "il sesso dell'autore o dell'autrice dietro una presunta neutralità della scrittura, pur rifiutando di essere catalogata secondo impropri criteri di genere sessuale." / "the sex of the author or of the authoress behind a presumed neutrality of writing, while refusing to be catalogued according to incorrect criteria of sex.”
“‘Letteratura femminile’ è infatti una categoria che raggruppava in un'unica ombra, compatta e indistinta, tutte le opere prodotte dalle donne e che ha storicamente assunto una connotazione limitata e limitante, quasi un genere letterario a parte e minore, caratterizzato da un'attenzione pressoché esclusiva ai sentimenti."
“‘Women’s literature’ is surely a category that gathers together in a single shadow, solid and indistinct, all the works produced by women and that has historically taken on a limited and limiting connotation, almost a genre of literature set apart and minored, nearly characterized by an attention reserved for emotions.”
Many of the plots of Cutrufelli’s books were born from her numerous travels and meetings with women from all over the world; from "libri d’esperienza" that re-evoke moments from her biographies to novels that often elaborate further on the stories of women from the past, as in the case of La donna che visse per un sogno. This book explores the last four months of the life of Marie Olympe de Gouges, a feminist during the time of the French Revolution.
With D’amore e d’odio she narrates the twentieth century through the lives of seven women tied to each other through a series of personal events, choosing a structure built on monologues of minor characters that illustrate the protagonists in the various stories. An original interpretation that, like in the case of Olympe de Gouges, unveils what Cutrufelli calls "molestie storiche"; that is, the legacy of misogyny that women who disturb the traditional order carry behind them. If it is true that, as Cutrufelli writes "le radici devono avere fiducia nei fiori" / "the roots need to have faith in the flowers"; it is a way of rereading the past with the hope that the future brings transformation.
With Il giudice delle donne we return to the beginning of the twentieth century, to Montemarciano, a country in the province of Ancona that looks over the Adriatic Sea. Ten teachers, commanded by the wife of the Socialist mayor, Luisa, welcome Maria Montessori’s appeal to ask for women's suffrage.

Works

Novels

Cutrufelli's stories are present in many magazines and in Italian and foreign anthologies.