Muzi Epifani


Maria Luisa Gabriella Epifani, better known as Muzi Epifani, was an Italian writer and poet.

Biography

Muzi Epifani was born in Benghazi, Libya. She studied literature and philosophy at the Heidelberg University and the University of Rome La Sapienza, where she obtained a degree in aesthetics under the supervision of . She was particularly influenced by the Hermeneutics of Hans-Georg Gadamer and the anthropological thought of Ernesto de Martino, whose missions she worked on in Lucania and Salento. During her studies at La Sapienza, she met Alex Duran, Gabriele Giannantoni, Enzo Siciliano, and Franco Voltaggio.
Epifani was one of the first Italian writers to develop a distinctive style of female writings alongside Natalia Ginzburg, Luce d'Eramo, Dacia Maraini, :it:Biancamaria Frabotta|Biancamaria Frabotta, , and Angiola Sacripante. She was a very attentive reader of English female writers such as Katherine Mansfield and, above all, Virginia Woolf.
She collaborated with various newspapers, such as "l'Unità", "l'Avanti!", ":it:Paese Sera|Paese Sera". She was considered an environmental activist and "Il Globo" published her own innovative column on the protection of the Italian landscape and environment entitled "Article 9", in reference to the Constitution of the Republic of Italy. Epifani also worked as a journalist for RAI, Italy's national public broadcasting company, in the fields of theatre and literature.
In her “Il Premio Viareggio? La mia vita”, Gabriella Sobrino described Muzi Epifani as always "surrounded by her children". They would work during the nights together "when we had finally managed to put to bed the children who would gather around us like puppies in their multi-coloured pyjamas".
In 1976, her comedy "La fuga" won the "Young Theatre" Prize. In this satirical play, Epifani intertwined a personal affair with a current political debate concerning the abortion law in Italy. The writer exposed the Italian hypocrisy of people who would permit abortion in the private sphere whilst at the same time criticising it in public. The play has been republished in 2015. The , introduced by the Italian writer and film-director Cristina Comencini, has been presented at the in Rome by Cristina Comencini, Biancamaria Frabotta, Lucianna Di Lello and Franco Voltaggio, with readings made by the Italian actress Piera degli Esposti.
Epifani is the mother of the film director Francesca Archibugi and of the economist Daniele Archibugi, a professor at Birkbeck College, University of London. She died in Rome.

Works

Novels and poetry collections