A woman who managed to express her potential and her creative dimension through pen and paper, giving birth to books that tell the story of her life in the world. Laura Di Falco She was a writer, now half-forgotten, whose memory must be preserved. She made a significant contribution to twentieth-century Italian literature.
Life references
Laura Anna Lucia Carpinteri, her registered name, was born in Canicattini Bagni on September 3, 1910. Her father was Francesco Carpinteri, an engineer; her mother was Clelia Alfieri, who came from a family of landowners who owned many vineyards. Despite her bourgeois background, Laura managed to acquire and nurture a critical conscience, which she then expressed through writing. At 14, she moved to Syracuse to attend the Tommaso Gargallo classical high school, where she was taught by Professor Ettore Campailla. During her high school years, she first stayed at the boarding school run by the Vincentian Sisters of Mary Immaculate. Then, Laura realized that this wasn't the right environment for her, so she went to live with her uncle Antonio Stella.
After graduating high school, the young woman enrolled at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa to study philosophy. Her sister Teresa, who had graduated in literature and archaeology from the University of Catania, joined her; together they began writing. During her university years, she met Arnaldo Momigliano, her professor, and Walter Binni and Claudio Varese, her colleagues. For a short time, she lived in Syracuse, where she taught literature and Latin; then, in 1935, she moved to Rome, where her life changed. She continued to teach, met and married Felice Di Falco. She shared her husband's political commitment, collaborating with the partisan resistance and serving in the Action Party with Ugo La Malfa. Her political and romantic partnership with her husband, with whom she also shared anticlerical views, led her to sign her writings as " Laura Di Falco.
Laura Di Falco's literary career
In the post-war period (1948) she began it, with the publication of the first stories on The Moment. He later also writes for The nation of Florence, with the publication of the novella as well The walk in mid-April. From 1950 to 1966 he wrote for the newspaper The World. A propensity for writing that isn't limited to mere display. Laura frequents Rome's cultural circles, such as Caffè Aragno and Maria Bellonci's salon, to share it. Along her literary journey, the writer meets prominent writers such as Eugenio Montale, who considers her talent authoritative, Vitaliano Brancati, and Ercole Patti, with whom she maintains a relationship of friendship and respect.
His most important works are Fear of the day (1954), An available woman (1959)The Three Wives (1967), The gate (1976), The black sand beach (1991). The writer died in Rome on February 5, 2002. In 2012, the Syracuse publishing house VerbaVolant decided to embark on a journey of rediscovery of the author. A reprint operation took place. An Available Woman, The Three Wives, The Gate. The aim is to celebrate Laura Di Falco's creative talent, expressed through her writing, as well as to consider her contribution to the literary field.
What the writer communicates
The author expresses the changes she experienced during the period in which she writes, especially the 60s and 70s. A period of great change for Italy, brought not only by the economic boom but also by a new way of experiencing family relationships. This is narrated through the lives of women, who find themselves in stagnant and backward environments. Mothers, daughters, and friends—female figures who, encouraged by social change, seek to start from within, understand what they truly want, and pursue freedom. It's not an easy journey, as the protagonists encounter cultural obstacles. In her writings, Laura Di Falco refers to Sicily, a land where conflicts and contradictions emerge, even to a tragic extent. This is also because Trinacria is slow to assimilate socio-cultural-economic processes.
Ne The gate the narration is set in Ortigia, a return to the place of origin to describe the rift between past and present that occurred at the end of the 60s. On the one hand, the beauty left by the Greeks and by various historical recurrences over time persists. On the other, measures are being implemented that, in the name of business and profit, deface coasts and beaches, demolish historic structures, and pollute the air. All this occurs as municipal and regional administrations pursue clientelistic policies. The path to women's freedom faces obstacles both from the traditional patriarchal mentality and from its variant, characterized by careerist logic.
Laura Di Falco, the memory of her great-granddaughter
The owner of the VerbaVolant publishing house, which republished the woman's writings, is Fausta Di Franco. Laura was her father's aunt, the wife of her grandfather's brother. Fausta didn't meet her very often, but the opportunities they met were truly inspiring. The publisher recalls the atmospheres they experienced, amidst books and paintings. It's worth remembering that Laura Di Falco also pursued a distinguished career as a painter, another avenue for expanding her creativity. She followed the school of Giovanni Consolazione; she always painted still lifes. The Dante Alighieri Foundation organized an exhibition of her works in 2006.
About ten years ago, Fausta, at the urging of various literature enthusiasts, decided to republish her writings with her daughter Laura. The republication of some texts came about after consulting Laura Di Falco's archive, donated to the Municipality of Canicattini Bagni. This rediscovery allowed Fausta to highlight the figure of her relative, who, both in her writing and in her life, championed the value of female freedom, as did Maria Messina e Livia De Stefani.
Laura, in fact, made some life choices that were unusual for the time, with a patriarchal mentality even more deeply rooted than today. This included attending high school in Aretusa and university outside the region, as well as moving to Rome. Even in the first half of the twentieth century, it was unthinkable for a young woman to study and move elsewhere. Laura Di Falco is a female figure to be remembered and revalued for her intellectual and creative contributions, as well as for having fought cultural backwardness with pen and paper.
