Mothers of Invention: Women, Italian Fascism, and Culture PDF
Preview Mothers of Invention: Women, Italian Fascism, and Culture
Mothers of Invention This page intentionally left blank Mothers of Invention Women, Italian Fascism, and Culture Robin Pickering-Iazzi, editor University of Minnesota Press Minneapolis London Copyright 1995 by the Regents of the University of Minnesota All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Published by the University of Minnesota Press 111 Third Avenue South, Suite 290, Minneapolis, MN 55401-2520 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Mothers of invention : women, Italian fascism, and culture / Robin Pickering-Iazzi, editor, p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8166-2650-2 (alk. paper). — ISBN 0-8166-2651-0 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Women in popular culture—Italy. 2. Women in politics — Italy. 3. Women in literature. 4. Fascism—Italy. I. Pickering-Iazzi, Robin Wynette. HQ1638.M76 1995 305.4-0945—dc20 95-14300 The University of Minnesota is an equal-opportunity educator and employer. Contents Acknowledgments vii Introduction: Inventions of Women's Making, in History and Critical Thought Robin Pickering-Iazzi ix 1 I Feminism and Socialism in Anna Kuliscioff's Writings Rosalia Colombo Ascari 1 2 / Gender Struggle and the Social Manipulation and Ideological Use of Gender Identity in the Interwar Years Mariolina Graziosi 26 3 / Women, Futurism, and Fascism Clara Orban 52 4 I Fascist Theories of "Woman" and the Construction of Gender Lucia Re 76 5 I Fascist Women and the Rhetoric of Virility Barbara Spackman 100 6 / The Power of Style: Fashion and Self- Fashioning in Irene Erin's Journalistic Writing Maurizia Boscagli 121 v vi / Contents 7 I Sibilla Aleramo: Writing a Personal Myth Flora A. Bassanese 137 8 I Antonietta Raphael: Artist, Woman, Foreigner, Jew, Wife, Mother, Muse, and Anti-Fascist Emily Braun 166 9 / Alba De Cespedes's There's No Turning Back: Challenging the New Woman's Future Carole C. Gallucd 200 10 I Reading, Writing, and Rebellion: Collectivity, Specularity, and Sexuality in the Italian Schoolgirl Comedy, 1934-43 Jacqueline Reich 220 Appendix: Chronology of Italian Fascism and Women in History and Criticism 253 Selected Bibliography 259 Contributors 263 Index 267 Acknowledgments I am indebted to the contributors, who generously invested their in- tellectual labor and creative talents in this volume of essays. I also wish to extend heartfelt gratitude to Janaki Bakhle and Robert Mosimann for the professional expertise and synergetic guidance they consistently offered while orchestrating each phase of the book's production. Para- digms of organization and efficiency, Laura Westlund and Mary Byers oversaw the final stages of manuscript preparation. The collection ben- efited from the copyediting provided by Judy Selhorst, whose work shows a strong regard for both the authors and the readers. This page intentionally left blank Introduction: Inventions of Women's Making, in History and Critical Thought Robin Pickering-Iazzi For a long time I have held the conviction that if woman wants to assert her spirituality, which the Church fathers and more recently Weininger... have denied her, she must not imitate man, but must bring out the specific attributes of her own being instead. Since these attributes have been hidden from her, she must discover them, or, more precisely, create them. In the spiritual sphere, woman must create herself. SIBILLA ALERAMO, "Capelli corti" (Short hair), 1925/1930 Invention as a Critical Category In his article "Scrittori e sirene" (Writers and sirens), the critic G. Titta Rosa gives us a provocative look at women and their locations in the cultural panorama of Italy in 1931, four years into the intensifying demographic campaign. This pronatalist project formed the fulcrum supporting the sexual politics the Fascist regime executed to incorpo- rate women, with persuasion or discipline, into a separate, domesti- cated sphere of culture. Writing on the occasion of the prestigious Via- reggio Literary Prize ceremony, Rosa treats his readers to a tantalizing cityscape lapped by the sea, while drawing attention to the female presence that outshines a supporting cast of illustrious scholars, young poets, and writers. His mise-en-scene focuses on women in public ix
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