Faculty of Arts

Italian 203 - Engendered Voices: Works by italian Women Writers & Filmmakers

WEEKLY PROGRAMME AND READINGS  

WEEK 1: INTRODUCTION TO THE COURSE
Please note: there will be no tutorials this week, but the lecturer will be available in her office during tutorial times. 

WEEK 2: ITALIAN WOMEN IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
 

Primary Readings:

Kemp, Sandra and Paola Bono. "Introduction. Without a leg to stand on". The Lonely Mirror. Italian Perspectives on Feminist Theory.  London and New York: Routledge, 1993.  2-10.  

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.
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.
Gagliardo, Giovanna (dir.). Bellissime. Il novecento visto dalla parte di 'lei' / Beautiful women. The Twentieth Century from Women's Perspective (2004) [Audio-Visual Library].
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.

 

WEEK 3: FRIENDS, LOVERS AND ACCESSORIES
 

Primary Readings
Matilde Serao.  La virtù di Checchina /  "Checchina's Virtue"  (1884)
Fanning, Ursula.  "Matilde Serao" in Italian women writers: a bio-bibliographical sourcebook, Ed. Rinaldina Russell.  Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1994, 386-394.

Additional Readings:

 

Fanning, Ursula.  "Sentimental Subversion: Representations of Female Friendship in the Work of Matilde Serao."  The Italianist 7(1987):  63-88.
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'". Online http://tell.fll.purdue.edu/RLA-Archive/1991/Italian-html/Salsini,Laura.htm.
---. "Verismo:  Matilde Serao's Gendered Genre." Italian Quarterly 33 (1996):  5-13

WEEK 4: SISTERS AND FRIENDS Tuesday

Primary Readings
Grazia Deledda. "Lo spirito del male" / "The Evil Spirit" (1915). 
Migiel, Marilyn.  "Grazia Deledda".  Italian Women Writers. A Bio-Bibliographical Sourcebook.  Ed. Rinaldina Russell.  Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1994. 111-118.

Additional Reading:
Wood, Sharon.  Italian Women 's Writing 1860-1994. London: Athlone, 1995.

WEEK 4: SISTERS AND FRIENDS Wednesday 

Primary Readings:

Rame, Franca. Abbiamo tutte la stessa storia / The Same Old Story (1977)
"Rame, Franca".  Dictionary of Italian Literature. Revised, Expanded Edition. Eds. Peter Bondanella and Julia Conaway Bondanella.  Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1996. 486-487 

Additional readings:

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". AUMLA102 (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.
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. Also online at http://www.intellectbooks.com/europa/number4/wood.htm

 

WEEK 5:  MOTHERS AND FRIENDS Tuesday 

Primary Readings:Natalia Ginzburg, "La madre"/ "The Mother"
Merry, Bruce, and Julie Docker.  "Natalia Ginzburg".  Italian Women Writers. A Bio-Bibliographical Sourcebook.  Ed. Rinaldina Russell.  Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1994. 154-162. 

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.
Bullock, Alan. Natalia Ginzburg. Human Relationships in a Changing World.  New York: Berg, 1991.
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. 
Picarazzi, Teresa L. Maternal Desire : Natalia Ginzburg's Mothers, Daughters and Sisters. Madison, N.J. : Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, c2002. 

WEEK 5:  MOTHERS AND FRIENDS Wednesday 

Primary Readings:Dacia Maraini, "Maria" (1968)
Lazzaro-Weis, Carol.  "Dacia Maraini".  Italian Women Writers. A Bio-Bibliographical Sourcebook.  Ed. Rinaldina Russell.  Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1994. 216-225.  

Additional readings:

See readings for weeks 11-12

 

WEEK 6: LESBIAN LOVERS

Primary Texts:Monica Stambrini, Benzina / Gasoline (2002)
Hays, Matthew. "The big bang". Review of Gasoline. http://www.montrealmirror.com/ARCHIVES/2002/091902/cover.html

Additional Readings:
Biancolli, Amy  'Seeing the Mother from Hell Through 'Lesbian Eyeglasses'; Monica Stambrini's Gasoline". http://www.indiewire.com/movies/movies_030630gas.html
Chambers, Bill. Review of Gas (Benzina). http://www.filmfreakcentral.net/screenreviews/benzina.htm
Holden, Stephen. "Fill 'Er Up With High Test, Please. Check the Oil and the Corpse in the Trunk.". The New York Times July 2, 2003. http://movies2.nytimes.com/mem/movies/review.html?title1=Gasoline+(Movie)
Ross, Charlotte. "Queering the habitus: Lesbian identity in Stancanelli's Benzina".  Romance Studies 22 (2004): 237-250.
Sambuco, Patrizia. "Women, relationships and space in Stancanelli's Benzina (1998)". RomanceStudies 22 (2004): 127-137.
Stambrini, Monica, Elena Stancanelli, and AnneRitte Ciccone. Benzina [screenplay in Italian]. http://www.kinematrix.net/articoli/benzina_home.htm

 

WEEK 7: WOMEN AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE 

Primary Readings: Susanna Tamaro, "Di nuovo lunedi" / "Monday Again" (1991).
"Biography of Susanna Tamaro". Online http://www.italica.rai.it/eng/principal/topics/bio/tamaro.htm  

Additional Reading: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. 

WEEK 8: WOMEN AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE 

Primary Texts:Cristina Comencini, La bestia nel cuore / Don't Tell (2005)

Additional Readings:"Flavia Laviosa speaks with the Italian Director Cristina Comencini". Kinema Fall 2005
http://www.kinema.uwaterloo.ca/lavi052.htm

Links to several reviews:
http://www.metacritic.com/video/titles/donttell2006
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/10006173-dont_tell/
"Making of"
http://www.makingofeuropa.net/making.asp?documentID=834

Official websites:
http://www.labestianelcuore.it/index.htm  
http://www.donttellfilm.com/

 

WEEKS 9 AND 10: WOMEN AND VIOLENCE IN THE WORKPLACE 

Primary Texts:Francesca Comencini, Mi piace lavorare (Mobbing) / I Love to Work (2004).
Lardera, Natasha. Review of I Love to Work. Online
http://www.usitalia.info/archivio/dettaglio.asp?Art_Id=959&data=05/30/2004.

Additional Readings:Cineuropa - Film focus - Mobbing
http://cineuropa.org/ffocusarticle.aspx?lang=en&treeID=1046&documentID=51042

Link to reviews in Italian
http://www.mymovies.it/dizionario/recensioni.asp?id=34821
Luciano, Bernadette. "Francesca Comenciniss Mobbing: An Indictment of Psychological Violence Against Women in the Workplace." In Violent Depictions: Representing Violence Across Cultures.  Ed. Sarah MacDonald and Susanna Scarparo. Cambridge Scholars Press: 2007. 90-104
"Mi piace lavorare (Mobbing)." Wikipedia, L'enciclopedia libera. http://it.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mi_piace_lavorare_%28Mobbing%29&oldid=5569965. 
 "When work gets too much"
http://www.kodak.com/US/en/motion/newsletters/inCamera/oct2003/mobbing.shtml

 

WEEKS 11 AND 12: WOMEN AND VIOLENCE: FAMILY, SOCIETY, SELF 

Primary Text:Dacia Maraini, Donna in guerra / Woman at War (1975) 

Additional Readings: Anderlini, Serena.  "Interview: Dacia Maraini. Prolegomena for a Feminist Dramaturgy of the Feminine".  Diacritics 21 (1991) : 148-160.
Chiavola Birnbaum, Lucia.  "femminismo e rivoluzione.  feminist cultural and political revolution".  liberazione della donna. feminism in Italy.  Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1986.  88-110.
Coburn, Melissa. "Calling a Spade a Spade... Uses and Abuses of Violent Language in  "Donna in guerra". Romance Languages Annual XI (2000): 161-166.
Diaconescu-Blumenfeld, Rodica and Ada Testaferri (eds). The Pleasure of Writing. Critical Essays on Dacia Maraini. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue UP, 2000.
Gala, Candelas. "Identity and Writing: A Lacanian Reading of Alba de Céspedes'  Quaderno proibito and Dacia Maraini's Donna in guerra". Forum Italicum 37 (2003): 147-160.
Golini, Vera F. "Italian Women in Search of Identity in Dacia Maraini's Novels". International Women's Writing. New Landscapes of Identity. Eds. Anne E. Brown and Marjanne E. Gooze'. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1995. 206-220.
Lazzaro-Weis, Carol.  From Margins to Mainstream. Feminism and Fictional Modes in Italian Women's Writing, 1968-1990.  Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993.
Lombardi, Giancarlo. Rooms with a View. Feminist Diary Fiction, 1952-1999. Madison, NJ: Farleigh Dickinson University Press, 2002.
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.
Pickering-Iazzi, Robin.  "Designing Mothers: Images of Motherhood in Novels by Aleramo, Morante, Maraini, and Fallaci".  Annali d'Italianistica 7 (1989): 325-340.
Rutter, Itala T. C.  "Feminist Theory as Practice. Italian Feminism and the Work of Teresa de Lauretis and Dacia Maraini".  Women's Studies International Forum 13 (1990): 565-575.
Tamburri, Anthony J.  "Dacia Maraini's Donna in guerra: Victory or Defeat?"            Contemporary Women Writers in Italy: A Modern Renaissance.  Ed. Santo L. Arico'.  Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1990.  138-151.
Wood, Sharon.  Italian Women's Writing 1860-1994. London: Athlone, 1995.