The writer Michelle Murgia (Cabras, Sardinia, 1972 – Rome, 2023), a unique voice of the movement feminist Italian, Catholic, influential left-wing intellectualHe died of kidney cancer on Thursday night at the age of 51.
They are great cultural activism in social networks has influenced the public debate and generated one critical reflection on crucial and topical issues in general, such as Immigration, women’s emancipation or the rights of LGBTI people.
In an interview with Corriere della Sera last May, he revealed his illness: “Cancer is not something I have, it’s something I am.” Therefore, decided to experience the time of his illness publiclyHe tells his story on social networks. In the same interview, he stated that he had only a few months to live and expressed himself with his always free, critical and rebellious spirit: “I only hope to die when Giorgia Meloni is no longer Prime Minister».
Meloni replied: “I learn that writer Michela Murgia is suffering from a terrible illness. I’ve never met her or shared her ideas, but I want to hug her and tell her we support her. I really hope she can see the day when she stops being Prime Minister as she hopes because my goal is to keep doing my job for a long time. OhCome on Michael!».
Giorgia Meloni said today of the enormous impact that the death of the writer has had in Italy: “I would like to express my sincerest opinion sympathy to the family and friends of the writer Michela Murgia. She was a woman who fought to defend her ideas, even though they were notoriously different from mine, and I have great respect for her for that.”
many lives
Michela Murgia lived many lifetimes before fully devoting herself to her writing career. After completing his studies at the commercial and technical college, he worked in at least five different professions. First she taught religion, then she worked as a tax officer, administrative manager and night porter.
In addition, she has been a columnist, consultant for the Gedi publishing group (which publishes “La Repubblica” and “La Stampa”, among others) and presenter on television and radio, where she mainly gave a voice to those forgotten or marginalized by society. The writer, who is also very active in social and political life, ran for the presidency of her home region of Sardinia in 2014, but did not win.
He began his literary career with “The world needs to know” (“The World Must Know,” 2006), a tragi-comic novel that chronicles the life of a precarious telephone operator. It was an autobiographical book originally blogged when Murgia was working in a ‘call center’. The story inspired the film All Life Ahead (2008) by Paolo Virzì, which Murgia co-wrote.
Public acknowledgment was achieved with “the finisher‘ (Einnaudi, 2009) on euthanasia and adoption in the 1950s. It is his best-known novel, with which he won several awards, including the Campiello. He reflected on this with “Ave Maria” (2011). women and the church (She had a BA in theology; she was received by Pope Francis in June.)
His latest book “Three bowls. “Rituals for a Year of Crisis” (Mondadori, 2023) quickly climbed to the top of the sales charts. Murgia confessed that in this novel he told “what is happening to me, including the diagnosis of cancer”.
A great advocate for diverse families, in her essay “God Save the Queer,” she expressed her confidence that “as a Christian, I hope that faith also needs a feminist and queer perspective.” Mother of four children, adopted as adults, she married “in articulo mortis” in mid-July Lorenzo Terenzi (1988), actor, director and musician. He did so politely to ensure the rights of his partner and family, declaring that day, “Husband a man, but he could also be a woman.”
One of the first Italian women writers, Michela Murgia will be remembered for turning narrative language into a powerful political tool for cultural struggle and resistance. He always did it with a smile, even in recent months as he staged his own illness.
