Angela Bianchini


Angela Bianchini was an Italian fiction writer and literary critic of Jewish descent. She grew in Italy and emigrated to the United States in 1941, after Mussolini's openly anti-Semitic racial laws were enacted.

Education and early career

Bianchini spent her "years in waiting" at Johns Hopkins University where she completed a Ph.D. in French Linguistics under the guidance and supervision of Leo Spitzer. The presence and lectures of a group of Spanish exiles determined some of her major interests in the field of Spanish literature: in particular the great 20th century poetry and 19th century novel.
After her return to Rome after the war, Bianchini was attracted to the world of communication and collaborated not only with such prestigious periodicals as Il Mondo of Mario Pannunzio, but also with RAI. For RAI she wrote several cultural broadcasts, radio plays and original radio and T.V. programs.
She had many literary studies to her credit. She was one of the first literary critics to study serial novels in La luce a gas e il feuilleton: due invenzioni dell'Ottocento
. She translated Medieval French Novels, and edited a Renaissance correspondence. In her book Voce donna she combined a study of feminism with her interests in biography and in narrative technique. For the last thirty years of her life she contributed to La Stampa and to its book-review section Tuttolibri'', especially on Spanish themes. Bianchini died of natural causes in Rome on 27 October 2018 at the age of 97.

Works

Bianchini began her career in fiction with the short stories of Lungo equinozio, which deal with the lives of women who live in Italy and in America. Here for the first time she explored her recurring theme of departures and arrivals. Giorgio Caproni, in a book review, commented enthusiastically on Bianchini's technique and on the texture of her stories, composed of everyday sentences and of scattered events against which stand out significant figures and particular historical moments. Carlo Bo, meanwhile, praised Bianchini's knowledge of the human heart and her sincerity and literary authenticity. Bianchini contributed the short story "Alta estate notturna" to the anthology of women writers Il pozzo segreto and the short story "Anni dopo" to the anthology Nella città proibita.

Novels

Bianchini also penned several novels.