Beatrice Monroy (born 1953) is an Italian writer and dramatist.

Biography

Beatrice Monroy was born and lives in

Palermo Palermo ( ; ; , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The ...

, having spent many years in various Italian cities and abroad in France and the United States. She is the daughter of Anna Oddo Monroy and Italian-American scientist . She is an author of short stories, theatrical texts, and novels. In 2005 she wrote the poem "Portella della Ginestra: Indice dei nomi proibiti," in which she recalled the

Portella della Ginestra massacre The Portella della Ginestra massacre refers to the killing of 11 people and wounding of 27 others during May Day celebrations in Sicily on 1 May 1947, in the municipality of Piana degli Albanesi. Those held responsible were the bandit and separa ...

on 1 May 1947. The subtitle "Index of Prohibited Names" evokes the historical

Index of Prohibited Books The (English: ''Index of Forbidden Books'') was a changing list of publications deemed heretical or contrary to morality by the Sacred Congregation of the Index (a former dicastery of the Roman Curia); Catholics were forbidden to print or re ...

and refers to the instigators of the crime, still officially unknown. In 2012 her book ''Niente ci fu'' ('There was nothing') was published, dedicated to the life of

rape survivor Rape is a traumatic experience that affects the victim (survivor) in a physical, psychological, and sociological way. Even though the effects and aftermath of rape differ among victims, individuals tend to suffer from similar issues found withi ...

Franca Viola Franca Viola (born 9 January 1948) is a Sicilian woman who became famous in the 1960s in Italy for refusing a " rehabilitating marriage" () to her rapist after being kidnapped, held hostage for over one week, and raped frequently. She is conside ...

, who rebelled against

forced marriage Forced marriage is a marriage in which one or more of the parties is married without their consent or against their will. A marriage can also become a forced marriage even if both parties enter with full consent if one or both are later force ...

in Sicily.

, interviewed by Concita De Gregorio, told her truth about this sequence of events in her life. Monroy's novel ''Oltre il vasto oceano: memoria parziale di bambina (Beyond the vast ocean: A girl's partial memory)'' was nominated for the

Strega Prize The Strega Prize ( ) is the most important Italian literary award. It has been awarded annually since 1947 for the best work of prose fiction written in the Italian language by an author of any nationality and first published between 1 March of t ...

in 2014, and it won the 2014 Kaos Prize. The next year, 2015, Monroy published her novel ''Dido: operetta pop,'' a modern Dido's journey "halfway between the epic and the comic, legend and reality, the mythic and the contemporary." Beatrice Monroy works in cooperation with

Rai 3 Rai 3 (formerly Rai Tre) is an Italian free-to-air television channel owned and operated by state-owned public broadcaster RAI – Radiotelevisione italiana. It was launched on 15 December 1979 and its programming is centred towards cultural a ...

Radio, directs an editorial series titled ''Passaggi di donne ('Passages of women')'', and has conducted writing workshops for women who were victims of violence. She teaches

dramaturgy Dramaturgy is the study of dramatic composition and the representation of the main elements of drama on the stage. The role of a dramaturg in the field of modern dramaturgy is to help realize the multifaceted world of the play for a production u ...

at the School of Arts and Theatrical Performance Trades at the Biondo Theater Company of Palermo directed by

Emma Dante Emma Dante (; born 6 April 1967) is an Italian playwright, theatre director and stage actress. She wrote, directed and starred in the 2013 film '' A Street in Palermo''. She later directed numerous operas, including Richard Strauss' '' Feuersnot' ...

Works

* ''Uccisioni stesso luogo stessa gente'' ('Murders, same place, same people'), Massa Carrara: Società editrice Apuana, 1990 * ''Noi, i palermitani ''('We, the Palermitans), Genoa: Marietti, 1991, * ''Palermo in tempo di peste ''('Palermo in the time of plague'), Palermo: Edizioni della Battaglia, 1992 * ''Barbablu : il volo il delitto'' ('Bluebeard: The flight, the crime'), Palermo: Edizioni della battaglia, 2002 * ''Portella della Ginestra. Indice dei nomi proibiti ''('Portella della Ginestra: Index of prohibited names'), presentation by Carmelo Diliberto, preface by Gianguido Palumbo, introduction by Fabrizio Loreto, Rome: Ediesse, 2005, * ''Carmelo e gli altri : un racconto ''('Carmelo and the others: A story'), Rome: Liberetà, 2006 * ''Tutti in scena : manuale per laboratori di teatro e drammaturgia ''('Everybody onstage: Manual for theater and dramaturgy workshops'), Molfetta: La Meridiana, 2010, * ''Elegia delle donne morte ''('Elegy for the dead women'), Marsala/Palermo: Navarra, 2011 * ''Niente ci fu ''('There was nothing'), Beatrice Monroy, Molfetta: La Meridiana, 2012, * ''Marius Scalesi, il ragazzo di razza incerta (Marius Scalesi, the lad of uncertain race'), Molfetta: La Meridiana, 2013, * ''Oltre il vasto oceano : memoria parziale di bambina'' ('Beyond the vast ocean: A girl's partial memory'), Rome: Avagliano, 2013, * ''Il libro delle vergini imprudenti'' (The book of impulsive virgins), a collective novel by Enzo Di Pasquale, Rossella Floridia, Adriana Iacono, Beatrice Monroy, Muriel Pavoni, and Elena Pistillo. Palermo: Navarra Editore, 2014, * ''Dido: operetta pop ''('

Dido Dido ( ; , ), also known as Elissa ( , ), was the legendary founder and first queen of the Phoenician city-state of Carthage (located in Tunisia), in 814 BC. In most accounts, she was the queen of the Phoenician city-state of Tyre (located ...

: A pop

operetta Operetta is a form of theatre and a genre of light opera. It includes spoken dialogue, songs and including dances. It is lighter than opera in terms of its music, orchestral size, and length of the work. Apart from its shorter length, the oper ...

'), Rome: Avagliano, 2015,

Notes

Bibliography

* * * * * * Salvatore Costantino, ''Stato di diritto, fiducia, cooperazione, legalità e sviluppo in Sicilia: analisi, ricerche, pratiche, percorsi'', Milan: Franco Angeli, 2008. * Augusto Balloni, Roberta Bisi, and Salvatore Costantino (eds.), ''Legalità e comunicazione: una sfida ai processi di vittimizzazione'', Milan: Franco Angeli, 2008. * Gianpaola Costabile, ''C come camorra'', preface by Don

Luigi Ciotti Luigi Ciotti Order of Merit of the Italian Republic, OMRI (born 10 September 1945), is an Italian Catholic priest belonging to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Turin, involved in the fight against illegality and organized crime such as Sicilian ...

, Naples: Rogiosi, 2015. * Maria Rosa Cutrufelli, ''I bambini della ginestra'', Milan: Frassinelli, 2012. * Fulvio Abbate, ''Il rosa e il nero: Palermo trent'anni dopo Mauro de Mauro'', Genoa: Zona, 2001. * Roselina Salemi, ''Ragazzi di Palermo'', Milan: Rizzoli, 1993. * ''Immagini Italiane'', ed. by Melissa Harris, Aperture Foundation, 1993. * Renate Siebert, ''Secret of Life and Death: Women and the Mafia'', Verso, 1996. * Nino Aquila, Lino Piscopo, ''Il teatro di prosa a Palermo: luoghi, spettacoli, persone, memorie dal 17. secolo'', con una nota di Bruno Caruso, Palermo: Guida, 2001. * Leggere, Volume 4, Edizioni 35–36, R. Archinto, 1991. * Sipario, Edizioni 547–552, Sipario, 1994. *

L'espresso () is an Italian progressive weekly news magazine. It is one of the two most prominent Italian weeklies; the other is the conservative magazine . Since 2022, it has been published by BFC Media. From 7 August 2016 to 10 September 2023, it was ...

, Volume 44, Edizioni 5–8, Editrice L'Espresso, 1998. * Patalogo: Teatro, Volumi 29–30, Ubulibri, 2006. *

External links

Beatrice Monroy's personal site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Monroy, Beatrice 1953 births 20th-century Italian dramatists and playwrights 21st-century Italian novelists 20th-century Italian women writers 21st-century Italian women writers Dramaturges Feminist writers Italian feminist writers Italian women dramatists and playwrights Living people Writers from Palermo Italian women novelists 20th-century Italian novelists