Maria-Antonietta Macciocchi

on. Maria Antonietta Macciocchi
Born (1922-07-23)23 July 1922
Isola del Liri, Italy
Died 15 April 2007(2007-04-15) (aged 84)
Rome, Italy
Nationality Italian
Education Degree in Philosophy and Letters
Occupation lecturer, journalist, writer
Political party Italian Communist Party (1943-1977), Radical Party, elected to Italian Parliament and European Parliament

Maria-Antonietta Macciocchi (1922-2007) was an Italian journalist, writer, feminist and politician, elected to the Italian Parliament in 1968 as an Italian Communist Party candidate and to the European Parliament in 1979 as candidate of the Radical Party.[1]

Life

Macciocchi was born in Isola del Liri, the child of anti-fascists. She joined the underground Italian Communist Party (PCI) during the German occupation of Rome. In 1950 she became editor of the party's women's magazine Vie Nuove. Then he edited a feminist magazine financed by the PCI, Noi donne.[2][3] She joined l'Unità, the paper founded by Antonio Gramsci, becoming their foreign correspondent in Algiers and Paris. In the 1960s she lectured at Vincennes University France, and her book Pour Gramsci was credited with introducing Gramsci's thought to French intellectuals.[1]

Returning to Italy in 1968 to stand in the general election as a candidate for Naples, she kept up a correspondence with Louis Althusser about both working-class conditions and local party management. Though elected, her publication of the correspondence helped to ensure that the PCI did not put her forward for re-election in 1972. She travelled to China for l'Unità, praising the Cultural Revolution in the resultant book, Dalla Cina: dopo la rivoluzione culturale. In 1977 she was expelled from the PCI for supporting Maoists in Bologna.

In 1979 she was elected Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the Radical Party.[1]

Correspondent from the world

Macciocchi alternated work as an MEP to that of a journalist, writing for major newspapers such as Corriere della Sera, Le Monde and El Pais articles from the most diverse parts of the world, from Cambodia to Iran and Jerusalem. In 1992, the French President François Mitterrand awarded her the Legion of Honor. In the same year, she met Pope John Paul II and was fascinated by his charismatic personality. She wrote about the Pope in "Le donne secondo Wojtyla" (Women according to Wojtyla), an unexpected book that aroused more controversy for her "conversion" from apologist for Mao Zedong to admirer of the Pope.

Later activities

In the 1990s Macciocchi lessened her journalistic activities in order to concentrate on book writing. She published works devoted to the history of Naples at the end of 700 and the events of the Neapolitan Republic. In 1993 she published 'Cara Eleonora' dedicated to Eleonora Fonseca Pimentel, and in 1998 came 'L'amante della rivoluzione', on the figure of Luisa Sanfelice.

In the European elections of 1994 Macciocchi was a candidate for parliament in the lists of the Patto Segni, but was not elected.

Works

Studies on Macciocchi: Eleonora Selvi, "Marie Antoinette Macciocchi.'s Intellectual heretic", Arachne, Rome 2012.

References

  1. 1 2 3 John Francis Lane, Maria Macciocchi: Italian dissident feminist at odds with the communist legacy, The Guardian, 21 May 2007. Retrieved 23 April 2012.
  2. ↑ "Maria Antonietta Macciocchi". MEMIM Encyclopedia. Retrieved 16 October 2016.
  3. ↑ Stephen Gundle (4 December 2000). Between Hollywood and Moscow: The Italian Communists and the Challenge of Mass Culture, 1943–1991. Duke University Press. p. 95. ISBN 0-8223-2563-2. Retrieved 16 October 2016.
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