Mothers of Invention: Women, Italian Fascism, and Culture

304 Pages·1995·17.752 MB·English

by  Robin Pickering-Iazzi

Mothers of Invention
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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.
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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