Female Cultural Production in Modern Italy: Literature, Art and Intellectual History

Description

This book is the first critical interdisciplinary examination in English of Italian women’s contributions to intellectual, artistic, and cultural production in modern Italy. Examining commonalities and diversities from the country’s Unification to today, the volume provides insight into the challenges that Italian women engaged in cultural production have faced, and the strategies they have deployed in order to achieve their objectives. The essays address a range of issues, from women’s self-identification and public ownership of their professional roles as laborers in the intellectual and cultural realm, to questions about motherhood and financial remuneration, to the role of creative foreign women in Italy. Through critical analysis and direct testimony from new and typically marginalized voices, including an Arab-Italian writer, an Italian-Dominican filmmaker, and a transgender activist, new forms of ongoing struggle emerge that redefine the culturally diverse landscape of female intellectual and creative production in Italy today. The volume rethinks a solely national “Made in Italy” reading of the subject of female intellectual labor, demonstrating instead the wide network of influences and relationships that have existed for Italian women in their professional aspirations. Acknowledgments Contents Notes on Contributors List of Figures Chapter 1: New Perspectives on the Roles of Women in Italy’s Modern Intellectual History References Part I: Modeling Female Labor Chapter 2: Fading Away: Women Disappearing from Literature Textbooks (How Italy Obliterates Female Intellectual Work) Introduction: Gender Equality in Textbooks and Why It Matters Women in Italian Textbooks in Low Secondary, Secondary and Higher Education Women and the Literary Canon The Marginalization of Female Scholars, Horizontal and Vertical Segregation Conclusion References Textbooks Cited Works Cited Chapter 3: Futurist Women Artists and the (Pro)Creative Metaphor Reclaiming the Fruits of Labor Mina Loy Benedetta Marisa Mori Politics of Control References Chapter 4: Elena Ferrante’s Women Intellectuals: Writing and the Paradoxical Relationship to the Mother References Chapter 5: Learning from the 1970s: Women’s Work Inside and Outside the Home Italian Feminism and Autonomia Reproduction, and What’s Wrong with Marx Looking Back Is Looking Forward References Part II: Performance as Strategy Chapter 6: From Art History to Life Writing: Anna Banti’s Feminist Resonance Gender and Genres Recognizing Artemisia Banti’s Resonance in Italian Feminism References Chapter 7: The Body and the Asemantic Writing in the Performance of Tomaso Binga Introduction Questioning Identities From Object to Subject The “Living Alphabet” Conclusion References Chapter 8: The Hard Work of Being Women in 1960s Italy: Cecilia Mangini and the Documentary Essere donne References Chapter 9: Marcella Campagnano and the Invention of Femininity References Part III: Questions of Female Authority Chapter 10: Jolanda, Angiolo Orvieto and Cosimo Giorgieri-Contri: Asymmetric Mentoring Relationships References Chapter 11: Alda Merini: Stigma and the Struggle for Authority as a Woman Writer Between Dream and Reality: The Early Period “From inside the tomb I, too, woke up again”:5 The Post-Asylum Period Reclaiming the Right to Live and Create: The Final Years References Chapter 12: Strike a Pose: Italian Women Artists’ Self-Representation in Photographic Portraits in the 1960s and 1970s Carla Accardi Giosetta Fioroni Conclusion References Chapter 13: Materializing Difference: Visions of Subjectivity in the Intermedia Works of Ketty La Rocca Introduction Negative Capability and Women’s Art: Ketty La Rocca in Context “you also means I”: La Rocca and Cavarero’s Body of Language “those things that no one wants”: La Rocca and Niccolai’s Hand-Books Il mio lavoro: La Rocca and Lonzi’s Self-Erasure Conclusions References Part IV: Collaborations, Networks and Support Systems Chapter 14: Reimagining Art Practice, Recasting Myths: The Story of Two Groups of Feminist Artists in Southern Italy in the Late 1970s The Michelangelo Complex Gruppo XX Gruppo Donne/Immagine/Creatività The Myth of Pandora’s Box Reception, Audience, and Impact Conclusion References Chapter 15: Contradictions and the Re-Invention of One’s Own Role: The Publishing House Scritti di Rivolta Femminile in the Life/Work of Carla Lonzi The Re-Invention of One’s Own Role From Art History to Feminism Farewell to Roles Work as a Refusal of Work The Reinvention of the Self References Chapter 16: Building a Different Memory Together: The Politics of Feminist Archives in Italy Introduction The Politics of History and Memory Feminist Path, Culture, and Archives Archives and the Documentary Network Conclusion References Part V: Foreigners in Italy Chapter 17: Reconstructing Edmonia Lewis’s Roman Life: An Exploration of Her Presence in the Eternal City Introduction From Turtle Island to Rome The Vatican: A Mohawk in Rome and the Apollo Belvedere Via della Frezza 27: Walking to Edmonia Lewis’s First Roman Atelier Caffè Greco and the Doleful Ditty The Basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere and Black Madonna Iconography Bust of Christ and the Tradition of the Nazarenes An Artistic Exodus: Leaving Rome for Paris and London References Chapter 18: Ombra Felice? Jessie Boswell and Daphne Maugham in Felice Casorati’s Shadow Jessie Boswell Daphne Maugham Out of the Shadows References Chapter 19: Russian Women Artists in Italy Between the Two Wars: Careers, Social Policies, and Intercultural Relations Between Revolution and Fascism Russian Women Artists Beyond Russia on the Eve of Political Catastrophe The Image of “Russian” Women in Italy Russian Women Artists in Italian Society Under the Fascist Regime Conclusion References Chapter 20: Gender Codes in Art and Industry: Beverly Pepper, an American in Postwar Italy References Part VI: Cultural Exchanges Chapter 21: Mario and Edita Broglio: The Dynamics of an Artist Couple in Fascist Italy The Three Lives of Edita Edita and Mario Rocco Canea References Archive Material Chapter 22: Weaving Connections Between Rome and New York: The Role of Gabriella Drudi Gabriella Drudi’s Formation as a Literary Agent, Translator, Author, and Art Critic Drudi’s Approach to Art Criticism Drudi’s Work as a Translator Drudi and Rosenberg Conclusion References Chapter 23: Editors’ Conversation with German Art Historians Oona Lochner and Isabel Mehl: Writing Like a Feminist—In Dialogue with Carla Lonzi References Part VII: Questioning Boundaries Chapter 24: Pinks, Purples and Shades of Porpora: The Life of Porpora Marcasciano and the Work of Trans Activism Finding Her “Collocazione” (Place): The Early Years Historical Conditions, Trailblazers, Naples, Rome, and Bologna Sex Workers’ Rights Are Human Rights MIT Bologna Names, Words, Saying, Telling, and Naming Oneself Conclusion References Chapter 25: Editors’ Conversation with Italian-Dominican Filmmaker Laila Petrone: Visualizing Multicultural Italian Women Chapter 26: Editors’ Conversation with Algerian-Italian Author and Translator Amal Bouchareb: Arab Women’s Cultural Production in Italy—Struggling Against Stereotypical Representations or Fitting into Neo-Orientalist/White Feminist Paradigms? Index