The writer Vittoria Ronchey, who had debuted in fiction in 1975 with the highly successful book “My children, imaginary Marxists” (Rizzoli), set in the school of the years of lead and which aroused lively controversy, died at the age of 96. in his Roman home.
Born in Reggio Calabria on 23 September 1925 as Vittoria Aliberti, she was the widow of the journalist and writer Alberto Ronchey (1926-2010), minister for cultural heritage in the Amato and Ciampi governments, and mother of the Byzantinist Silvia Ronchey. She was a teacher of history and philosophy for decades, she left the classical high school in Bergamo Alta to follow her husband to Rome, obtaining her position at the XVI Scientific high school in the hamlet of Primavalle (today ‘Luigi Pasteur’). Here are set the events of “My children, imaginary Marxists” (subtitle “Death and transfiguration of the professor”) which narrates surreal events in the school world in the post-68 years as a metaphor for the contradictory society of that period, steeped in rancor and ideological contrasts between losers and winners, between usurped and usurpers, between servants and masters.
With that title between the ironic and the provocative, Vittoria Ronchey wrote, in the form of a diary, the account of her frustrating experience as a teacher in the years of protest and the disruptive presence of politics within the school, winning the Viareggio Nonfiction Opera Prize First and selling 130 thousand copies. The book, appreciated by both Communists and Christian Democrats, and even quoted by Enrico Berlinguer in his speech to the Chamber, offered a disenchanted reflection on the evils of the Italian school, starting with the teaching system, passing through teaching and ministerial programs. , up to the smoky and inconsistent “experimental methods” of teaching and the “dogmatic sleep” of the Marxist style that darkened the minds not only of students, but also of most teachers.
After completing her teaching profession, Vittoria Ronchey devoted herself entirely to writing, preferring fiction: the novel “1944” (Rizzoli, 1991), set in Nazi-occupied Rome, was included in the five finalists of the 1992 Strega Prize.
Among his other works: “The face of Isis” (Rizzoli, 1993); “La fontana di Bachcisaray” (Mondadori, 1995), with which he won the Hemingway Prize in 1996: “A dangerous habit” (Mondadori, 1997); “Twelve ghost stories” (Longanesi, 1999). Vittoria Ronchey translated the novel “Little Fadette” by the French writer George Sand.
(by Paolo Martini)