Matilde Serao

Matilde Serao was a leading figure in the history of journalism and literature. A courageous, bold woman, she opens the way to a new way of understanding journalism: as a social mission, as a tool for describing society. Her path, marked by personal and economic obstacles, turns into an extraordinary story of intellectual emancipation and professional affirmation, which makes her a central figure in Italian history between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. «Newspaper is the whole history of a society - he writes - and, like the life itself, of which it is the image, [...] has within itself the power of all good and all evil [...]. The journalist is the apostle of good [...] the newspaper is the noblest form of human thought [...]. the future belongs to the newspaper». He was born on 14 March 1856 in Patras, Greece, to Paolina Borely and Francesco Serao, a Neapolitan lawyer who was forced into exile for his anti-Bourbon ideas. After the unification of Italy, the family returned to their homeland, settling first in Carinola and then in Naples. His education began with some delays, also due to the family's economic difficulties, so much so that he only enrolled in school at the age of fifteen. In a few years she obtained her teacher's diploma, but was forced to look for work as an auxiliary at the State Telegraphs. Precisely in this period his first collaborations with the local Neapolitan press began. Driven by her passion for writing, she left her state job to devote herself completely to a literary and journalistic career. In 1882 he moved to Rome, where he began writing for the periodical Capitan Fracassa. The following year, she published the novel Fantasia (1883), which was sharply criticized by Edoardo Scarfoglio, a journalist who would later become her husband in 1885. The bond between Matilde and Scarfoglio was both sentimental and professional. Together they founded Il Corriere di Roma, an editorial project which, however, did not last long and ended in 1887. After this experience, the couple moved again to Naples, where Matilde began writing for Il Corriere di Napoli. The experience culminated in 1892 with the founding of Il Mattino, one of the most important daily newspapers in the South, of which Serao was also co-editor. During these intense years, Matilde never interrupted her activity as a writer, publishing works such as The Conquest of Rome (1885), The Maiden's Novel (1886) and Life and Adventures of Riccardo Joanna (1887), which Benedetto Croce defined as “the novel of journalism”. His private life, however, was marked by deep pain. Her husband's extramarital affair with singer Gabrielle Bessard, which culminated in the woman's suicide, led to the breakdown of the marriage. Matilde welcomed the child born from that relationship into her home, showing great strength of mind. Involved, albeit marginally, in the scandal of the Sulmonte administration that engulfed Il Mattino, she progressively distanced herself from the management of the newspaper. Later, he met Giuseppe Natale, lawyer and journalist, with whom he shared a new life and work path. In 1903 she founded Il Giorno, becoming the first woman in Italy to create and direct a newspaper. Matilde Serao was also a prolific author of novels and short stories. From his debut with L'Opale (1878) until his last novel Mors tua... (1926), published in the year of his death, he never stopped writing. Among his most important works are Il ventre di Napoli (1884), Il Paese di Cuccagna (1891), and La Virtue di Cecchina (1906). His famous column Bees, blowflies and wasps appeared for over forty years in various publications. In 1926 he received a nomination for the Nobel Prize for Literature. He died the following year, in 1927, in Naples, at the age of 71, leaving an extraordinary cultural legacy in the Italian landscape of journalism and fiction.