Ricerc@Sapienza

Fabrizia Ramondino: The Birth of a Writer between Morante and Gadda · The article outlines Fabrizia Ramondino’s tormented transition from the private space of her writing to the public sphere, which saw her authoring, at the age of forty- ve the dazzling Althénopis (1981), one of the most important novels of the second half of Italy’s twentieth century. By gathering and analysing a range of data from Ramondino’s interviews and writings, some of which are little known, this article brings to light a process that developed over more than twenty years, sustained by a vast range of readings and which elected Proust and Gadda as the ideal models for her rst novel. The complex relationship of admiration and imitation that Fabrizia Ramon- dino established with Elsa Morante immediately after Althénopis is also examined, as well as the poignant short stories of Storie di patio (1983).