Lia Levi was born in Pisa on November 9, 1931 to a Jewish family of Piedmontese origins. Her father, Alessandro (1901–1973), who was born in Brescia, was an attorney at law. Her mother, Leontina Segre (1906–1984), was born in Turin and had a degree in law. They married in 1931. After the promulgation of the fascist racial laws in 1938 and the beginning of antisemitic persecutions, Lia Levi’s family left Northern Italy and found refuge in Rome. After the end of World War II Levi remained in Rome, where she completed her studies in philosophy and became a successful journalist. For more than thirty years she has directed the Jewish monthly Shalom.
In 1957 Levi married Roberto Calderoni (b. 1931) and they had two children: Fabio (b. 1958) and Dario (b. 1965). The couple divorced in 1970. In 1977 Levi married Luciano Tas.
Lia Levi is best known as the author of several works of fiction largely dedicated to Jewish themes. She belongs to a generation of cultured and well-integrated Jewish intellectuals whose literary works testify to the renewed interest in Jewish history and cultural traditions that developed among European intellectuals and artists throughout the twentieth century.
Her first novel, Una bambina e basta (Just a Child), for which she was awarded the Elsa Morante Prize in 1994, tells the story of a Jewish girl who finds refuge from Nazi persecution in a Catholic convent near Rome. The novel depicts the complex relationship between the little girl and her mother; it describes the girl’s interest in the world of the convent, not threatened by discrimination and persecution, and her mother’s efforts to protect her daughter’s life and identity from annihilation. Only at the end of the war does the mother tell her daughter that she will have the freedom to choose who she wants to be.
In the novel’s sequel, Se va via il re (If the King Goes Away), the Jewish girl who faced the fascist racial laws and antisemitic persecutions finds herself in a country struggling to find its post-war political identity, where Italians are asked to decide whether they want to live under a monarchy or under republican rule. The important historical moment is presented in the novel from the point of view of a class of elementary school pupils whose fights mirror the conflicts that divided Italian society at the time.
Lia Levi ha vissuto da bambina gli anni terribili della discriminazione razziale. Travolta da quella follia che stigmatizzava anche i bambini per la loro fede religiosa, alla fine della guerra sar. Sei una bambina, e basta. Una mattina con Lia Levi Nella mattinata di luned. Molti bambini avevano letto anche coinvolti e. Celebra il 27 gennaio per ricordare le vittime dell’Olocausto,si tiene la lettura pubblica di Una bambina e basta di Lia Levi, romanzo edito nel 1994 che vinse il Premio Elsa Morante-Opera Prima.
In these novels, as well as in most of Lia Levi’s works of fiction, there are few literary ornaments or rare figures of speech. On the contrary, the story is told in a simple and colloquial style. The narrative voice presents tragic historical events, personal and collective history, as a sequence of ordinary facts. The leisurely pace of Levi’s clear prose, though far from simple, evokes the danger that such events, despite their horrendous nature, could recur.
Lia Levi’s works also convey to the readers a strong sense of confidence in the act of writing and in the possibility of transmitting historical memory to future generations. Faithful to the Jewish commandment of preserving the memory of the past—to the command to remember the exodus from Egypt every day of one’s life—Lia Levi wrote books in which historical events of our recent past are also told for children. Tutti i giorni di tua vita (All the Days of Your Life), a novel published in 1997 about a Jewish Italian family from 1921 to the present, is dedicated to the author’s young nephews. Her hope is that once they become adults, the book will help them understand the tragic events that haunt the history of the twentieth century.
Una Bambina E Basta Lia Levi Pdf Free Downloads; Una Bambina E Basta Lia Levi Pdf Free Downloads.Part of thebook series (IIAS) AbstractFor a complete understanding of Italian representations of the memory and testimony of the Shoah, we must take into consideration literary renditions of the discrimination endured by the Italian Jewish community during the period of time leading up to their. Lia Levi nasce a Pisa da una famiglia piemontese di religione ebraica.Al principio degli anni '40 la famiglia si trasferisce a Roma, dove la scrittrice vive tuttora.Da bambina ha dovuto affrontare i problemi della guerra e della persecuzione razziale. © 2023 by Talking Business. Proudly created with Wix.com Wix.com.
Una Bambina E Basta Lia Levi Pdf To Word Converter
It is not by chance, then, that Lia Levi is also a well-known and successful writer of children’s books. In Una valle piena di stelle (A Valley Full of Stars) and Da quando sono tornata (Since I Came Back), to name just two of her many children’s books, Lia Levi tells historical children’s tales. By combining the author’s personal experience of tragic historical facts, such as the promulgation of the fascist racial laws in 1938 and the persecution of World War II, with accurate historical research on contemporary Italian history, Lia Levi aims not only to teach children about historical events, but also to make them the main protagonists of important events in contemporary Italian history. Sometimes these tales are told from the point of view of a girl. In Un Garibaldino di nome Chiara (A Garibaldian Named Chiara), for instance, Lia Levi tells the story of eleven-year-old Chiara who, disguised as a boy, follows her father, one of Garibaldi’s loyal captains, in the exploits that will lead to the unification of Italy.
In Che cos’è l’antisemitismo? Per favore rispondete (What is Antisemitism? Please Reply), Lia Levi tackles a non-narrative genre. Born out of a series of meetings with students in schools all over Italy, the book gathers some of most frequently asked questions about Jews, Judaism and antisemitism and tries to obliterate the prejudices that still affect the relationship between Jews and non-Jews in Italy.
Lia Levi’s books express a belief in the importance of the art of writing. With her clear conversational prose, she shows us that the novel, as a literary genre, helps in the preservation of memory. Her novels provide insight into the trials and tragedies facing Italian Jews during the twentieth century as well as documentation of their great contributions to the development of Italian civilization. From her writing, Levi’s readers gain a truer emotional and intellectual understanding of the past.
Levi has received the following awards: Candoni; Elsa Morante (1994); Castello (1997); Moravia (2001); Grinzane Cavour (2001); Fenice Europa (2003); Cento.
SELECTED WORKS BY LIA LEVI
Novels
Una bambina e basta (Just a Child). Rome: 1994; Quasi un’estate (Almost a Summer). Rome: 1995; Se va via il re (If the King Goes Away). Rome:1996; Tutti i giorni di tua vita (All the Days of Your Life). Rome: 1997; L’albergo della magnolia (The Magnolia Hotel). Rome: 2001.
Children’s Books
Una valle piena di stelle (A Valley Full of Stars). Milan: 1997; Da quando sono tornata (Since I Came Back). Milan: 1998; La gomma magica (The Magic Eraser). Milan: 1999; Cecilia va alla guerra (Cecilia Goes to War). Milan: 2000; Maddalena resta a casa (Maddalena Stays Home). Milan: 2000; Il sole cerca moglie (The Sun is Looking for a Wife). Milan: 2001; Il segreto della casa sul cortile. Roma: 1943–1944 (The Secret of the House on the Courtyard. Rome: 1943–1944). Milan: 2001; Che cos’è l’antisemitismo? Per favore rispondete (What is Antisemitism? Please Reply). Milan: 2001; La perfida Ester (The Evil Ester). Milan: 2002; Un garibaldino di nome Chiara. 1860 (A Garibaldian Named Chiara: 1860). Milan: 2002; La collana della regina. Roma 1943 (The Queen’s Necklace). Milan: 2002; La villa del lago. La Repubblica di Salò 1943–1944 (The Villa on the Lake. The Republic of Salò 1943–1944). Milan: 2003; La lettera B. I sei mesi che hanno sconvolto la mia vita (The Letter B. The Six Months that Upset My Life). Milan: 2003.
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How to cite this page
Parussa, Sergio. 'Lia Levi.' Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia. 27 February 2009. Jewish Women's Archive. (Viewed on December 12, 2020) <https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/levi-lia>.