Lea Melandri, born Maddalena Melandri (Fusignano, 4 marzo 1941) is an essayist, writer, teacher, and feminist activist based in Milan since 1967.
She is the co-founder and Chair at the Libera Università delle Donne (Free Women’s University) based in Milan.
Together with psychoanalyst Elvio Fachinelli, she participated in the non-authoritarian teachers’ movement in 1968, co-founding the magazine L’erba voglio (1071-1978). A leading activist in the women’s movement in the 1970s, Melandri took part in various Milanese feminist consciousness groups, including Gruppo dell’inconscio (the Group of the Unconscious) and Sessualità e Scrittura (Sexuality and Writing).
She is the author of several volumes on feminism, including L’infamia originaria. Facciamola finita col Cuore e la Politica. (L’erba voglio edizioni, 1977, and Manifestolibri edizioni, 1997); L’erba voglio. Il desiderio dissidente (Baldini & Castoldi editions, 1998); Come nasce il sogno d’amore (Rizzoli editions, 1988; reprinted by Bollati Boringhieri editions, 2002); Una visceralità indicibile. La pratica dell’inconscio nel movimento delle donne degli anni Settanta (Fondazione Badaracco edizioni, Franco Angeli edizioni, 2000); Amore e violenza. Il fattore molesto della civiltà (Bollati Boringhieri edizioni, 2011).
English texts and translations include Love and Violence: The Vexatious Factors of Civilisation. Translated by Antonio Calcagno, State University of New York Press, 2020 and Elvira Roncalli ed., The Future of the World Is Open: Encounters with Lea Melandri, Luisa Muraro, Adriana Cavarero, and Rossana Rossanda (State University of New York Press, series in Contemporary Italian Philosophy, 2023).
In 2012, Lea received the ‘Feminist Theorist’ title by the Municipality of Milan as part of the Ambrogino d’Oro award.
Together with psychoanalyst Elvio Fachinelli, she participated in the non-authoritarian teachers’ movement in 1968, co-founding the magazine L’erba voglio (1071-1978). A leading activist in the women’s movement in the 1970s, Melandri took part in various Milanese feminist consciousness groups, including Gruppo dell’inconscio (the Group of the Unconscious) and Sessualità e Scrittura (Sexuality and Writing).
She is the author of several volumes on feminism, including L’infamia originaria. Facciamola finita col Cuore e la Politica. (L’erba voglio edizioni, 1977, and Manifestolibri edizioni, 1997); L’erba voglio. Il desiderio dissidente (Baldini & Castoldi editions, 1998); Come nasce il sogno d’amore (Rizzoli editions, 1988; reprinted by Bollati Boringhieri editions, 2002); Una visceralità indicibile. La pratica dell’inconscio nel movimento delle donne degli anni Settanta (Fondazione Badaracco edizioni, Franco Angeli edizioni, 2000); Amore e violenza. Il fattore molesto della civiltà (Bollati Boringhieri edizioni, 2011).
English texts and translations include Love and Violence: The Vexatious Factors of Civilisation. Translated by Antonio Calcagno, State University of New York Press, 2020 and Elvira Roncalli ed., The Future of the World Is Open: Encounters with Lea Melandri, Luisa Muraro, Adriana Cavarero, and Rossana Rossanda (State University of New York Press, series in Contemporary Italian Philosophy, 2023).
In 2012, Lea received the ‘Feminist Theorist’ title by the Municipality of Milan as part of the Ambrogino d’Oro award.