She Persisted

photographer unknown

Grazia Maria Cosima Damiana Deledda was an Italian writer who received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1926 “for her idealistically inspired writings which with plastic clarity picture the life on her native island,Sardinia and with depth and sympathy deal with human problems in general”.

Grazia was born in Nucor, Sardinia, on September 27, 1891. She was the fourth of seven children in a middle-class family. Deledda attended elementary school, which was the minimum required, especially for a girl. She had an insatiable appetite for learning, and she tutored for a short while with a teacher who was a guest of one of her relatives. Grazia then studied on her own, focusing on literature. The family pulled her out of school when she was just nine years old. They told her that education was not for girls. 

Grazia disagreed and began to pen short novels in secret. Her inspiration was the life of Sardinian peasants and their struggles, the representation of poverty and the struggles associated with it through a combination of imaginary and autobiographical elements. After a friend’s encouragement, she sent her writing to a local newspaper, and her first story saw publication. She was thirteen years old. This was scandalous! Villagers whispered, and the priest shook his head. Her family disapproved.

It was not always easy for Grazia simply because she was born a woman. She suffered being mocked, humiliated, and dismissed. In the rugged hills of her hometown, girls were told to sew and were discouraged from having any dreams at all. But she dreamed while writing in the stillness of the night when the world was silent. Her words became a voice that the world could no longer ignore. 

She married Palmiro Madesani later in life and moved to Rome. Palmiro was the love of her life, and she his. He was her strength, her ally, her best friend and supported her quiet revolution. They had two sons, Franz and Sardus. Both of whom eschewed the world of Roman society. For a tranquil domestic life. 

Grazia’s writing gained popularity, and this led to many followers wishing to offer their “profound admiration” for her. Journalists and photographers flocked to her home to visit her. She quickly grew weary of the attention. One day she noticed that her beloved pet, Check, a pet crow, grew agitated and was not enjoying the chaos of people coming and going in their home. “If Checca has had enough, so have I,” Grazia said, and she returned to a more retired routine. 

In 1926, that little girl who had to hide her studies and writing, endured being shut out and mocked, became the first Italian woman to with the Nobel Prize in literature. Grazia proved that being born a woman, being relegated to second-class citizens, was not a limitation. For Grazia, it is a legacy. 

Although she was important in Italian and world literature, people haven’t recognized Deledda as a feminist writer. This may be because she often wrote about women’s suffering instead of their independence.