MORANTE, ELSA

born Aug. 18, 1918, Rome, Italy died Nov. 25, 1985, Rome Italian novelist, short-story writer, and poet who was known for the epic and mythical quality of her works, which usually centre upon the struggles of the young in coming to terms with the world of adulthood. Morante early exhibited literary talent, and, although her formal education remained incomplete, her marriage to the novelist Alberto Moravia brought her for a time into association with the leading Italian writers of the day. Her first novel, Menzogna e sortilegio (1948; House of Liars), recounts the complex history of a southern Italian family through the memory and imagination of a young woman. Morante's next novel, L'isola di Arturo (1957; Arturo's Island), examines a boy's growth from childhood dreams to the painful disillusions of adulthood; the work is notable for its delicate lyricism, mingling realistic detail with an air of unreality. The novel La storia (1974; History: A Novel) met with mixed critical reaction but commercial success. Set in Rome between 1941 and 1947, it depicts the arduous life of a simple, half-Jewish elementary school teacher and her son, born of a rape by a German soldier. The story reaffirms the author's passionately held ideology, which denies any possibility of humane politics and apparently excludes any final hope for humanity. Morante also published a volume of short stories, Lo scialle andaluso (1963; The Andalusian Shawl); a volume of essays, Il gioco secreto (1941; The Secret Game); and two collections of poetry, Alibi (1958) and Il mondo salvato dai ragazzini (1968; The World Saved by Little Children).