'''Elsa Morante''' (* 18. August 1912 in Rom; † 25. November 1985 ebenda) war eine italienische Schriftstellerin, die zu den wichtigsten Vertreterinnen der Nachkriegsliteratur gezählt wird.

== Biografie ==
Elsa Morante stammte aus dem proletarischen römischen Stadtteil Testaccio. Von 1941 bis 1962 war sie mit Alberto Moravia verheiratet. Zu ihren Freunden zählten Natalia Ginzburg und Pier Paolo Pasolini. Wie ihr Mann hatte sie eine jüdische Mutter. Das Paar ging 1943/44 ins Exil. 

Seit dem Alter von 13 Jahren publizierte Elsa Morante Erzählungen in Zeitungen für Kinder. 1948 erschien der erste ihrer vier großen Romane, ''Accattone. Der Roman ''Arturos Insel'' (1957) erhielt nach ihrem Suizid-Versuch 1983 den Premio Strega. 1984 bekam sie den Premio Medici für ''Aracoeli''. 
 
Sie reiste nach USA. Dort hatte sie eine Liaison mit dem jungen Maler Bill Morrow († 1962).

Sie ist die Tante der italienischen Schauspielerin Laura Morante.

== Werke <small>(Auswahl)</small> ==
* Menzogna e Sortilegio (Lüge und Zauberei). Roman (1948)
* L'isola di Arturo (Arturos Insel). Roman (1957) 
* La Storia. Roman (1974) 
* Aracoeli. Roman (1981)

thumb|right|Morante with [[Alberto Moravia at Capri in the 1940s.]]
'''Elsa Morante''' (Italian novelist, perhaps best known for her novel ''La storia'' (''History'').  

==Biography==
Elsa Morante was born in Rome in 1912, and except for a period during World War II, would reside in her home city until her death in 1984. 

She married the novelist Alberto Moravia in 1941, and through him she met many of the leading Italian thinkers and writers of the day.

Morante began writing short stories which appeared in various publications and periodicals, including periodicals for children, in the 1930s.  Her first book was a collection of some of the stories, ''Il Gioco Segreto'', published in 1941.  It was followed in 1942 by a children's book, ''La Bellissime avventure di Caterì dalla Trecciolina'' (rewritten in 1959 as ''Le straordinarie avventure di Caterina'').

Towards the end of translating Katherine Mansfield during this period, as well as working on her first novel--she even risked returning to wartorn Rome to retrieve the manuscript of "Menzogna e sortilegio".

Following the war, Morante and Moravia met American translator William Weaver, who helped them to find an American audience.  Her first novel, 1948's ''Menzogna e sortilegio'', won the prestigious Viareggio prize, and was later published in the United States as ''House of Liars'' in 1951. However, Morante and others found the English translation quite poorly done, to Morante's great disappointment.

Morante's next novel, ''L'isola di Arturo'', appeared in 1957 and won the Strega prize.  Much of the work she had written in the meantime, she had destroyed, although she did publish a novella, ''The Andalusian Shawl'', and a poem, ''The Adventure''.  Her next work, ''Il mondo salvato dai ragazzini'' (a mix of poetry, songs and a play) did not appear until 1968. Freudian psychology, Plato, Pier Paolo Pasolini, and Simone Weil have all been cited as influences on her writing.