Faculty of Arts

Weekly programme and readings

Jump to:

Week 1 Week 4 Week 7 Week 10
Week 2 Week 5 Week 8 Week 11
Week 3 Week 6 Week 9 Week 12

 

Week 1 - Introduction to the course

Please note: there will be no tutorials this week.

Week 2 - Italian women in the twentieth century

Readings

  • Signorelli, Amalia. “Women in Italy in the 1970s”. In Bull, A. C. and Adalgisa Giorgio (eds.), Speaking Out and Silencing: Culture, Society and Politics in Italy in the 1970s. Leeds: Legenda, 2006. 42-68.
  • Di Cori, Paola. “Comparing different generations of feminists: precariousness versus corporations?”. Feminist Review 87 (2007): 136-140.

Additional readings

  • Birnbaum, Lucia Chiavola. Liberazione della donna. Feminism in Italy.  Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1986.
  • Bono, Paola and Sandra Kemp (eds). Italian Feminist Thought. A Reader. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1991.
  • ---. The Lonely Mirror. Italian Perspectives on Feminist Theory. London and New York: Routledge, 1993.
  • Caldwell, Lesley. “Italian Feminism: Some Considerations”. In Women and Italy. Essays on Gender, Culture and History. Eds. Zygmunt G. Baranski and Shirley W. Vinall. Houndmills: Macmillan, 1991. 95-116.
  • Di Cori, Paola. “Listening and silencing. Italian feminists in the 1970s: between autocoscienza and terrorism”. In Bull, A. C. and Adalgisa Giorgio (eds.), Speaking Out and Silencing: Culture, Society and Politics in Italy in the 1970s. Leeds: Legenda, 2006. 30-45.
  • Fantone, Laura. “Precarious changes: gender and generational politics in contemporary Italy”. Feminist Review 87 (2007): 5-20.
  • Feminist Review. Special issue on Italian Feminisms. 87 (2007).
  • Gagliardo, Giovanna (dir.). Bellissime. Il novecento visto dalla parte di ‘lei’ / Beautiful women. The Twentieth Century from Women’s Perspective (2004) [Audio-Visual Library].
  • Gagliardo, Giovanna (dir.). Bellissime. Dal 1960 ad oggi dalla parte di Lei (2006) [Audio-Visual Library. In Italian only].
  • Hellman, Judith Adler. Journeys Among Women. Feminism in five Italian cities. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1987.
  • Laviosa, Flavia. “1970s: a Decade of Legislative Reforms for Italian Women’s Protection and Equality”. Italian Politics and Society 47 (1997): 57-63.
  • ---. “The Challenge of Italian Women in the 1980s and 1990s: Resolving the paradox of Legislation on Affirmative Action in a Reality of Unequal Opportunity”. Italian Politics and Society 48 (1997) 61-70.
  • Parati, Graziella and Rebecca West (eds). Italian Feminist Theory and Practice. Equality and Sexual Difference. Madison: Farleigh Dickinson University Press, 2002.
  • Scarparo, Susanna. “In the Name of the Mother: Sexual Difference and the Practice of ‘Entrustment.’” Cultural Studies Review 11, 2 (2005): 36-48.
     

Week 3 - Friends, lovers and accesories

Readings

  • Fanning, Ursula. “Matilde Serao” in Italian women writers: a bio-bibliographical sourcebook, Ed. Rinaldina Russell. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1994, 386-394.
  • Serao, Matilde. La virtù di Checchina. Available Online - here , here and here.
  • Serao, Matilde. “Checchina’s Virtue”. In Antonia Arslan and Gabriella Romani (eds). Writing to Delight. Italian Short Stories by Nineteenth-Century Women Writers. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2006. 19-57.

Additional readings

  • Fanning, Ursula. “Angel vs. Monster: Serao's Use of the Female Double”. The Italianist 7 (1987): 63-88.
  • ---. “Sentimental Subversion: Representations of Female Friendship in the Work of Matilde Serao.” Annali d’Italianistica 7 (1989): 273-286.
  • Harrowitz, Nancy. “Double Marginality: Matilde Serao and the Politics of Ambiguity.” Italian Women Writers from the Renaissance to the Present. Ed. Maria Marotti. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1996. 85-94.
  • Howard, Judith Jeffrey. “The Feminine Vision of Matilde Serao.” Italian Quarterly 71 (1975): 55-77.
  • Salsini, Laura A. “Checchina and Isolina: Female Friendship in Matilde Serao’s ‘La Virtù di Checchina’”.
  • ---. “Verismo: Matilde Serao’s Gendered Genre.” Italian Quarterly 33 (1996): 5-13.

Week 4 - Sisters and friends

Readings

  • Migiel, Marilyn. “Grazia Deledda”. Italian Women Writers. A Bio-Bibliographical Sourcebook. Ed. Rinaldina Russell. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1994. 111-118.
  • Deledda, Grazia. “Lo spirito del male”. In Il fanciullo nascosto. Nuoro: Il Maestrale, 1995. 167-175.
  • Deledda, Grazia. “The Evil Spirit”. Chiaroscuro and Other Stories. Trans. Martha King. London: Quartet Book, 1994. 195-204
  • "Rame, Franca". Dictionary of Italian Literature. Revised, Expanded Edition. Eds. Peter Bondanella and Julia Conaway Bondanella. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1996. 486-487.
  • Rame, Franca. Abbiamo tutte la stessa storia. In Le commedie di Dario Fo. Venticinque monologhi per una donna. Torino: Einaudi, 1989. 67-75.
  • Rame, Franca. The Same Old Story. In A Woman Alone and Other Plays. Trans. Gillian Hanna. London: Methuen, 1991. 49-60.

Additional readings on Grazia Deledda

  • Wood, Sharon. Italian Women 's Writing 1860-1994. London: Athlone, 1995.
  • Wood, Sharon (ed.). The Challenge of the Modern. Essays on Grazia Deledda. Leicester: Trobadour, 2007.

Additional readings on Franca Rame

  • Anderlini, Serena. "When Is a Woman's Work Her Own? An Interview with Franca Rame". Feminist Issues 11 (1991): 23-52.
  • Cottino-Jones, Marga. "Franca Rame on Stage. The Militant Voice of a Resisting Woman". Italica 72 (1995): 323-339.
  • Farrell, Joseph. Dario Fo and Franca Rame: Harlequins of the Revolution. London: Methuen, 2001.
  • Gawler, Jacqueline, and Stephen Kolsky. “Co-authorship in Tutta casa, letto e chiesa. The Writing of the Monologhi”. AUMLA 102 (2004): 85-103.
  • Gunsberg, Maggie. “Centre stage: Franca Rame’s female parts”. Gender and the Italian Stage. From the Renaissance to the Present Day. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1997. 203-242.
  • Radulescu, Domnica. “Performing the Female Gypsy: Commedia dell’arte’s ‘Tricks’ for Finding Freedom”. In Glajar, Valentina and Radulescu, Domnica (eds.), "Gypsies" in European Literature and Culture. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008. 193-215.
  • Walter Valeri (ed.), Franca Rame: A Woman on Stage, West Lafayette, Bordighera, 1999.
  • Wood, Sharon. “Parliamo di donne. Feminism and Politics in the Theatre of Franca Rame. In Farrell, Joseph and Antonio Scuderi (eds). Dario Fo. Stage, Text, and Tradition. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2000.
  • Wood, Sharon. "Women and Theater in Italy: Natalia Ginzburg, Franca Rame, and Dacia Maraini". Romance Languages Annual 5 (1993): 343-348.

Week 5 - Friends and lovers

Readings

  • Di Battista, Maria. “Natalia Ginzburg”. In Encyclopedia of Italian Literary Studies. Edited by Gaetana Marrone with Paolo Puppa and Luca Somigli. New York – London: Routledge, 2007. 842-848.
  • Ginzburg, Natalia. L’inserzione. Opere. Milano: Mondadori, 1986. 1207-1260.
  • Ginzburg, Natalia. The Advertisement. The wrong door: the complete plays of Natalia Ginzburg. Transl. Wendell Ricketts. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2008. 57-95.

Additional readings

  • Anderlini-D’Onofrio, Serena. “Ginzburg and Italian Feminism”. The “Weak” Subject. On Modernity, Eros, and Women’s Playwriting. Madison: Farleigh Dickinson University Press, 1998. 270-285.
  • Anderlini-D’Onofrio, Serena. “To ‘Kill Thee and Love Thee After’: The Advertisement”. The “Weak” Subject. On Modernity, Eros, and Women’s Playwriting. Madison: Farleigh Dickinson University Press, 1998. 250-269.
  • Anderlini, Serena. “The Advertisement: Homoeroticism and Gender in Natalia Ginzburg’s Drama”. Esperienze letterarie 15 (1990): 67-82.
  • Bullock, Alan. “The Advertisement”. Natalia Ginzburg. Human Relationships in a Changing World. New York: Berg, 1991. 127-131.
  • Jeannet, Angela M. and Giuliana Sanguineti Katz (eds). Natalia Ginzburg: A Voice of the Twentieth Century. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2000.
  • Merry, Bruce. Women in Modern Italian Literature. Four Studies Based on the Work of Grazia Deledda, Alba de Cespedes, Natalia Ginzburg, and Dacia Maraini. Townsville, QLD: James Cook University of North Queensland, 1990.
  • Wood, Sharon. “Women and Theater in Italy: Natalia Ginzburg, Franca Rame, and Dacia Maraini”. Romance Languages Annual 5 (1993): 343-48.

Week 6 - Lesbian lovers

Primary texts

  • Monica Stambrini, Benzina / Gasoline (2002) [A/V Library]
  • Hays, Matthew. “The big bang”. Review of Gasoline.

Additional readings

Week 7 - Women and domestic violence

Readings

  • Salsini, Laura. “Susanna Tamaro”. In Encyclopedia of Italian Literary Studies. Edited by Gaetana Marrone with Paolo Puppa and Luca Somigli. New York – London: Routledge, 2007. 1819-1821.
  • Susanna Tamaro, “Di nuovo lunedi”. Per voce sola. 1991. Venezia: Marsilio, 1994. 9-20.
  • Susanna Tamaro, “Monday Again”. In For Solo Voice. Trans. Sharon Wood. Manchester: Carcanet, 1995. 1-9.
  • Lazzaro-Weis, Carol. “Dacia Maraini”. In Encyclopedia of Italian Literary Studies. Edited by Gaetana Marrone with Paolo Puppa and Luca Somigli. New York – London: Routledge, 2007. 1142-1147.
  • Dacia Maraini, “Ombre”. Buio. Milano: Rizzoli, 1999. 203-215.
  • Dacia Maraini, “Shadows”. Darkness. Transl. Martha King. South Royalton, VT: Steerforth Press, 2002. 152-162.

Additional readings on Susanna Tamaro

  • Benedetti, Laura. “Per voce sola e reticente: potere del male e suoi travestimenti in ‘Di nuovo lunedì’ di Susanna Tamaro”. Italian Culture 16 (1998): 203-215.
  • Di Ciolla McGowan, Nicoletta. “‘Anima Parvuli’: a Child’s Destiny according to Susanna Tamaro”. Forum Italicum 33 (1999): 459-484.
  • Rorato, Laura. “Childhood Prisons. Denied Dreams and Denied Realities: The Ritualization of Pain in the Novels of Susanna Tamaro”. Romance Studies 28 (1996): 61-78.

Additional readings on Dacia Maraini

  • Diaconescu-Blumenfeld, Rodica and Ada Testaferri (eds). The Pleasure of Writing. Critical Essays on Dacia Maraini. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue UP, 2000.
  • Lazzaro-Weis, Carol. From Margins to Mainstream. Feminism and Fictional Modes in Italian Women's Writing, 1968-1990. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993.
  • Merry, Bruce. Women in Modern Italian Literature. Four Studies Based on the Work of Grazia Deledda, Alba de Cespedes, Natalia Ginzburg, and Dacia Maraini. Townsville, QLD: James Cook University of North Queensland, 1990.
  • Picchietti, Virginia. Relational spaces : daughterhood, motherhood, and sisterhood in Dacia Maraini's writings and films. Madison, [N.J.): Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, c2002.
  • Wood, Sharon. Italian Women's Writing 1860-1994. London: Athlone, 1995.

Week 8 - Women and domestic violence 

Texts

  • Cristina Comencini, La bestia nel cuore / Don’t Tell (2005) [A/V Library]
  • McGovern, Katie. “Cristina Comencini”. The American, February 10, 2009.

Additional readings

  • “Flavia Laviosa speaks with the Italian Director Cristina Comencini”. Kinema Fall 2005
  • Laviosa, Flavia. “Cristina Comencini, novelist and filmmaker: From La bestia nel cuore to Don’t Tell”. In De Pau, Daniela and Georgina Torello (eds.), Watching Pages, Reading Pictures: Cinema and Modern Literature in Italy. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2008. 131-149.

Links to several reviews

Official websites

Weeks 9 and 10 - Women and violence in the workplace

Texts

Additional readings

Weeks 11 and 12 - Renegotiating mothers and landscapes 

Readings

  • Elena Ferrante, L’amore molesto. Roma: Edizioni e/o, 2006. [for sale at SELL office]
  • ---. Troubling Love. Trans. Ann Goldstein. New York: Europa Editions, 2005. [for sale at UBS]
  • Giorgio, Adalgisa. “The Passion for the Mother: Conflicts and Idealisations in Contemporary Italian Narrative by Women”. In Adalgisa Giorgio (ed. and introd.), Writing Mothers and Daughters: Renegotiating the Mother in Western European Narratives by Women. New York, Oxford, Berghahn Books, 2002. 128-131.
  • Mullenneaux, Lisa. “Burying Mother's Ghost: Elena Ferrante's Troubling Love”. Forum Italicum 41 (2007): 246-50.

Additional readings

  • Benedetti, Laura. The Tigress in the Snow: Motherhood and Literature in Twentieth-Century Italy. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2007. 102-110.
  • Bovo-Romoeuf, Martine. “Sensualité et obscénité dans L'amore molesto et I giorni dell'abbandono d'Elena Ferrante”. In Sarrabayrouse, Alain (ed. and introd.), Images littéraires de la société contemporaine, II. Grenoble, France: Université Stendhal, 2006. 129-138.
  • Lombardi, Giancarlo. “Scambi d'identità: Il recupero del corpo materno ne L'amore molesto”. RLA: Romance Languages Annual 10:1 (1998): 288-91.
  • Martone, Mario (dir.). L’amore molesto (1996) (film available in AV library)
  • O'Healy, Áine: "Revisiting the Belly of Naples: The Body and the City in the Films of Mario Martone" Screen 40:3 (1999): 239-56.
  • Small, Pauline: "Mario Martone's L'amore molesto: Desperately Seeking Delia" Italianist: Journal of the Department of Italian Studies, University of Reading, 19 (1999): 298-317.
  • Verdicchio, Pasquale: "'O Cuorp' 'e Napule: Naples and the Cinematographic Body of Culture" In Ruberto, Laura E. (ed. and introd.); Wilson, Kristi M. (ed. and introd.), Italian Neorealism and Global Cinema. Detroit, MI: Wayne State UP, 2007. 259-89.
  • From the Libreria delle donne, interviews in Italian with Elena Ferrante 

 


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