Abstract

Published in Tempo in July 1953, «La mia avventura americana» is the only autobiographical text signed in life by Anna Magnani, who left no other written memoirs of herself. The pages of the article offer the reader a logbook of the actress’s trip and stay in New York for the premiere of Bellissima (L. Visconti, 1951). Composed in the years of the actress’ heyday, the account of the trip across the ocean is Magnani’s opportunity for a reinterpretation and fine-tuning of her star persona. The diva observes herself and captures with great lucidity the underlying elements of her celebrity at that chronological height: the characters of Roman-ness and Italian-ness, the internationally recognized stature, the rhetoric of authenticity.