Anita Pichler (28 January 1948 – 6 April 1997) was an Italian author and translator from

South Tyrol South Tyrol ( , ; ; ), officially the Autonomous Province of Bolzano – South Tyrol, is an autonomous administrative division, autonomous provinces of Italy, province in northern Italy. Together with Trentino, South Tyrol forms the autonomo ...

who wrote in German. She was the first post-war author to achieve visibility outside that region.

Life

Pichler was born in

Schenna Schenna (; ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) and a village in South Tyrol in northern Italy, located in the Passeier Valley, about northwest of the city of Bolzano. Geography As of 30 November 2010, it had a population of 2,841 and an area of .Al ...

and grew up in Schenna, Sulden and

Trieste Trieste ( , ; ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital and largest city of the Regions of Italy#Autonomous regions with special statute, autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, as well as of the Province of Trieste, ...

. She went on to study modern languages and literature at the

Ca' Foscari University of Venice Ca' Foscari University of Venice (), or simply Ca' Foscari, is a public research university and business school in Venice, Italy. Since its foundation in 1868, it has been housed in the Venetian Gothic palace of Ca' Foscari, from which it takes ...

and Slavic studies in

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

. She received a scholarship to attend

Humboldt University The Humboldt University of Berlin (, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a public university, public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin, Germany. The university was established by Frederick William III of Prussia, Frederick W ...

East Berlin East Berlin (; ) was the partially recognised capital city, capital of East Germany (GDR) from 1949 to 1990. From 1945, it was the Allied occupation zones in Germany, Soviet occupation sector of Berlin. The American, British, and French se ...

in 1979. In 1982, Pichler returned to

Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...

, where she was a lecturer for German at the Ca' Foscari University. She started writing in the 1960, but did not write anything between 1969 and 1978, which she later explained by lack of time. In 1986, Pichler published her first story ''Die Zaunreiterin''. It was published by

Suhrkamp Verlag Suhrkamp Verlag is a German publishing house, established in 1950 and is generally acknowledged as one of the leading European publishers of fine literature. Its roots go back to the "arianized" part of the S. Fischer Verlag. In January 2010, ...

and became the first piece by a modern South Tyrolean author published by a major German publishing house. Originally, the title was ''Haga Zussa'', however, the publishers thought it would be selling worse, and convinced Pichler to change the title. The story was republished post-mortem in 2004 as ''Haga Zussa''. ''Die Zaunreiterin'' was noticed and commented on in German and Austrian media, including, for example, Marcel Reich-Ranicki. In the 1990s, Pichler was able to devote more time to writing due to Austrian and Swiss fellowships she received. From 1991 to 1992, she was author in residence for the town of

Biel/Bienne Biel/Bienne (official bilingual wording; German language, German: ''Biel'' ; French language, French: ''Bienne'' ; Bernese German, locally ; ; ; ) is a bilingual city in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. With over 55,000 residents, it is the ...

and, in 1994, was official author for Innervillgraten. She moved to

Bolzano Bolzano ( ; ; or ) is the capital city of South Tyrol (officially the province of Bolzano), Northern Italy. With a population of 108,245, Bolzano is also by far the largest city in South Tyrol and the third largest in historical Tyrol. The ...

in 1995 after becoming ill and died there two years later at the age of 49. In 2002, she was portrayed in the film ''Anita Pichler - Ich will einfach erzählen''.

Selected work

Writing

* ''Die Zaunreiterin'' (Suhrkamp, 1986) *: Republished as ''Haga Zussa'' (Haymon, 2004) * ''Wie die Monate das Jahr. Suhrkamp'', narrative (1989) * ''Die Frauen aus Fanis'' (1992) * ''Beider Augen Blick. Neun Variationen über das Sehen'' (1995) * ''Flatterlicht. Verstreute und unveröffentlichte Texte'', post-mortem (2007)

Translations (from Italian to German)

* ''Über das Innehalten auf einem Feldweg'' by (1993) * ''Die Steine von Pantalica'' by

Vincenzo Consolo Vincenzo Consolo (18 February 1933 – 21 January 2012) was an Italian writer. Consolo was born in Sant'Agata di Militello but resided in Milan from 1969 until his death. He began his literary career in 1963, but gained wider attention in 197 ...

(1995)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pichler, Anita 1948 births 1997 deaths People from Merano Germanophone Italian people 20th-century Italian women writers Italian writers in German 20th-century Italian translators