Victoria de Stefano

Victoria de Stefano (21 June 1940 – 6 January 2023) was an Italo-Venezuelan writer, philosopher, and educator, best known for her work as a novelist and essayist.

Victoria de Stefano
De Stefano in 2016
Born	Victoria de Stefano (1940-06-21)21 June 1940 Rimini, Italy
Died	6 January 2023(2023-01-06) (aged 82) Caracas, Venezuela
Occupation	Novelist
Spouse	Pedro Duno

Early life and education

Victoria de Stefano was born in Rimini, Italy, in 1940, and moved to Venezuela with her family in 1946. She reflects this experience in Su vida, a collection of autobiographical texts published in 2019.^[1]

She studied at the Instituto Politécnico Educacional.^[2] She graduated with a degree in philosophy from the Universidad Central de Venezuela (UCV) in 1962.^[3]

Exile

De Stefano, her husband Pedro Duno and their two sons went into exile at the end of 1962.^[4] They lived in Havana, Cuba; Algeria; Switzerland; Paris, France; and Sitges, Spain.^[4]

Return to Venezuela

De Stefano and her family returned to Caracas in 1966. There, she worked as a researcher at the Institute of Philosophy at the Universidad Central de Venezuela and taught Aesthetics, Contemporary Philosophy, and Art Theory at both the School of Philosophy and the School of Art.^[3]

Personal life and death

De Stefano was married to the philosopher Pedro Duno, with whom she had two sons: Rodrigo Duno and Martín Duno.^[4] De Stefano and Duno later separated.

De Stefano died in Caracas on 6 January 2023, at the age of 82.^[5]

Publications

De Stefano's works include:^[6]

• El desolvido (1971),
• Sartre y el marxismo (1975)
• La noche llama la noche (1985),
• Poesía y Modernidad, Baudelaire (1984)
• El lugar del escritor (1990)
• Cabo de vida (1993)
• Historias de la marcha a pie (1997)
• Lluvia (Barcelona: Candaya, 2002)
• Paleografías (2010)
• Historias de la marcha a pie (Reed. 2013)
• Su vida (El Taller Blanco Ediciones, Bogotá. 2019 )
• Venimos, vamos (Planeta, 2019)

Prizes

De Stefano won the following prizes:^[7]

• Premio Municipal de Ensayo (1984)
• Finalist in the Premio Internacional de Novela Rómulo Gallegos (1999)
• Premio Municipal de Novela (2006).