Anna Maria Ortese was fully aware of he position as a creator of archival material. She often referred in her notes to the need to put her papers in order, to answer letters from her illustrious correspondents, keep typewritten copies of the same, and to check over her texts, establishing an order among her constantly reread, corrected and rewritten drafts of novels. The Naples State Archives is engaged on the arrangement and cataloguing of this extraordinary fonds, which will be completed in 2006. In the meantime, it is organizing for the spring two days of readings, showings of films, and writing workshops devoted to Ortese in collaboration with two cultural associations, namely Aldebaran Park, which has been producing Antonella Cilento’s Laboratorio di Scrittura Lalineascritta for twelve years now, and Sebezia, which publishes Scrinia, a journal of archival science, paleography, diplomatics and historical studies.

Funding from the Naples City Council will make it possible to hold the event in the month of April at the PAN (Palazzo delle Arti di Napoli), housed in the prestigious setting of Palazzo Roccella in Via dei Mille. By agreement with the Adelphi publishing house, which holds the rights to Ortese’s manuscripts, work is currently underway on sifting through the wealth of published and unpublished material (letters, interviews, short essays, notes and vernacular poems) and deciding on a selection of texts to be presented to the public through the interpretation of young actors and musicians.

The purpose of this initial presentation is to stimulate awareness and appreciation of the extraordinary wealth and particular importance in both cultural and social terms of the material produced by this very special writer, one of the greatest in twentieth-century Italian literature.

It is also planned to hold an exhibition and conference at the end of the year in the state archives with the participation of illustrious critics and writers who, like Ortese, have “interpreted” Naples with all its wonders and contradictions.