In the evening hours of Thursday 10 August, at the age of fifty-one, Michela Murgia died.
Under the heading “Intellectual“, every good dictionary contains a definition that explains how it is an individual who, due to cultural and dialectical skills, exercises a profound influence on a part of society.
A few decades ago, then, many intellectuals (precisely) remembered how every gesture is political.
Ecco: the concept of intellectual and that for which every gesture is political seem to us the two best ways to synthetically recall the figure of Michela Murgia.
To the point that the subdivision we made in the next paragraphs – Michela Murgia writer, Michela Murgia activist, Michela Murgia divisive character – becomes just for convenience, to give a certain order to the article. But, as for any intellectual, his entire life testimony (at least since it has had public significance) we could say that it was unique.
Michela Murgia writer
Since the debut book (which, in the opinion of the writer of this article, remains the best and most vivid), The world must knowMichela Murgia showed how literature can still have the validity of social testimonywithout renouncing to aesthetic pleasantness which should characterize every literary work.
The book was first published in 2006 for a publisher who has now passed away, ISBN, and talks about the hardships of a telephone operator employed in a call center. It is an autobiographical story. It is interesting to point out how the initial material of the novel had taken shape on a blog, demonstrating that Michela Murgia immediately adopted a multimedia approachalmost pioneering for those times.
A prolific and multifaceted pen
For reasons of space, let us omit his dense, varied and award-winning subsequent production. Let us recall at least the novel Accabadora (Einaudi, 2009), winner of the Campiello, Dessì and SuperMondello awards.
And two essays, which show the versatility of Michela Murgia. The first, Hail Mary. And the church invented the woman (Einaudi, 2011), gives an account of the Catholic education of the writer. And her critical vision of the Catholic Church, from a feminist perspective. The Church, in the essay, is in fact accused of having shown an image of women as inferior and subordinate to men.
If we have quoted the first essay by Michela Murgia, let’s jump forward to the penultimate one, Shut up and nine more sentences we don’t want to hear anymore (Einaudi, 2021). In the meantime, Murgia’s feminism has become more radical, and here she concentrates on macho language, reasoning on a phrase taken for granted by too many, but a clear sign of a patriarchal order in our society.
Michela Murgia activist
Michela Murgia, especially in recent years, has spent herself with great energy on a number of causes, the most varied.
Fervent anti-fascistthe current prime minister Giorgia Meloni harshly criticized from many quarters, including the prime minister’s request to be called “the president”, with the masculine article.
And here we could talk about Michela Murgia’s attention to the linguistic aspects related to gender identity (she was among the first promoters of the schwa).
Murgia then made active politicspresenting itself as a candidate for the leadership of the Sardinia Region in 2014 with an independence party (and holding almost all the speeches in the Sardinian language).
There are many areas in which she has personally spent herself: from LGBTQ+ issues to antimilitarism, from social inequalities to illness. Michela Murgia, last May, in fact made her tumor public (already in the fourth stage), speaking about it with great courage and avoiding any self-consoling rhetoric.
Very skilled in the use of new means of communicationtogether with Chiara Tagliaferri held the highly successful podcast Morgana.
Offer
Michela Murgia divisive intellectual
There is an adjective that is used too much today: divisive.
Michela Murgia, regardless of the degree of adherence that from time to time we may have with what she advocated, was a divisive intellectual. Ma divisive intellectual is a redundant term: an honest intellectual, who vehemently takes a stand on cultural and social problems, it cannot fail to be divisive.
And Michela Murgia waswith always direct and sometimes angular ways, regardless of being nice to his counterpart.
Only in the future will it be possible to judge from a fair distance the value of his literary corpus and the lucidity of his positions. One thing is certain: Michela Murgia, with her life and works, has demonstrated that the figure of the intellectual is still possible today. Indeed, necessary.