ITAL30110 Selected Twentieth-Century Italian Women Writers

Academic Year 2022/2023

This module investigates crucial examples of Italian women's writing in the twentieth century, while problematizing the term ‘women’s writing’ and considering what it might mean. Three texts written at crucial moments of the century (the 1960s, the 1970s, and the 1990s), from the point of view of women’s changing position in society, are studied. The texts (Ginzburg’s Lessico famigliare, Morante’s La Storia, and Loy’s La parola ebreo) are firmly placed within their historical and cultural context, as well as within the context of each author’s work. Feminist literary theory is also explored, particularly in its Italian dimension. Close readings of the texts, with an eye to themes and stylistic features of particular importance, are offered in lectures. Tutorials will initially focus mainly on commentary work, in small groups and later (after the class test) on critical readings of critical readings. Assessment is by means of an essay plan/abstract (including bibliographical references) due in week 8, a class test in week 9, and a long comparative essay due in week 12. Students should have read the texts prior to the commencement of the module.



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Curricular information is subject to change

Learning Outcomes:


On completion of this module students should be able to:- recognize the place of the texts studied in the broad historical and cultural context of Italy, as well as in the specific context of Italian women’s history and culture; - develop an awareness of the complexities surrounding definitions of women’s writing;- present ideas orally and engage in discussion in tutorials; - analyse the texts in terms of both form and content through providing a detailed commentary on individual texts; - write a critical essay appropriate to a third-year student of Italian literature, taking due account of critical sources.

Indicative Module Content:

INDICATIVE OUTLINE OF LECTURES

1. Introduction to the course. Initial approaches: the canon
2. How do women write? Theoretical approaches
3. Ginzburg: Context; women in Italy: politics, family, and the self
4. Lessico famigliare: Text structure and genre; themes and issues
5. Elsa Morante: Context; women writing history
6. La Storia: Text structure and genre; themes and issues
7. Loy: Context, history, the self and the other
8. BREAK (READING WEEK)
9. La parola ebreo: Text structure and genre; themes and issues
10. Further considerations on Feminist theory
11. Conclusions: similarities and differences between our three texts
12. Final considerations

Student Effort Hours: 
Student Effort Type Hours
Lectures

10
Tutorial

10
Specified Learning Activities

45
Autonomous Student Learning

45
Total

110
Approaches to Teaching and Learning:
Lectures, supplemented by tutorials. Active, task-based learning; group work; critical writing; case-based learning.
Active participation in class is required. In addition to that, full engagement with material and tasks made accessible in Brightspace is expected every week.
 
Requirements, Exclusions and Recommendations
Learning Recommendations:

Students should have completed Italian Language IIb (ITAL20080) or have an equivalent competency in the language. Texts will be read in Italian. It would be useful if core texts were read in advance of commencement of the module.


Module Requisites and Incompatibles
Not applicable to this module.
 
Assessment Strategy  
Description Timing Open Book Exam Component Scale Must Pass Component % of Final Grade
Essay: Comparative essay of at least 2,500 words. Students have a wide choice of essays. Week 12 n/a Graded No

50
Assignment: Detailed essay plan/abstract, including bibliographical references Week 8 n/a Graded No

10
Class Test: Commentary on one of the core texts. Students have a choice of text. Week 9 n/a Graded No

40

Carry forward of passed components
Yes
 
Resit In Terminal Exam
Spring No
Please see Student Jargon Buster for more information about remediation types and timing. 
Feedback Strategy/Strategies

• Feedback individually to students, on an activity or draft prior to summative assessment
• Feedback individually to students, post-assessment
• Group/class feedback, post-assessment

How will my Feedback be Delivered?

The (low-stakes) essay plan submitted in week 8 will receive individual feedback normally within 10-15 working days, in order to allow students to better structure the (high-stakes) essay due in week 12. The (class test) commentary (due in week 9) will normally be returned with 20 working days, with individual feedback.

Reading list:
E. Abel (ed.), Writing and Sexual Difference (Brighton, Harvester, 1982) 809 &SLC809
S.L. Aricò, Contemporary Women Writers in Italy: A Modern Renaissance (University of Massachussets Press, 1990) 850.9ARI
Z.G. Baranski & S.W. Vinall (eds.), Women and Italy: Essays on Gender, Culture and History (Basingstoke, Macmillan, 1991) GEN305.40945BAR
C. Belsey, “Critical Approaches” in Bloomsbury Guide (see below)
______ & J. Moore (eds.), The Feminist Reader (Basingstoke, MacMillan, 1989) 809BEL SLC
P. Bono & S. Kemp (eds.), Italian Feminist Thought: A Reader (Oxford, Basil Blackwell, 1991) 305.42BON
L. Caldwell, Italian Family Matters: Women, Politics and Legal Reform (Basingstoke, MacMillan, 1991) 305.40945
M. Cicioni & N. Prunster, Visions and Revisions: Women in Italian Culture (Oxford, Berg, 1993) GEN305.40945CIC
C. Cretella, Architetture interiori: immagini domestiche nella letteratura femminile del novecento italiano: Sibilla Aleramo, Natalia Ginzburg, Dolores Prato, Joyce Lussu (Franco Cesati Editore, 2008) 850.9CRE
U. Fanning, “Italy” in Bloomsbury Guide to Women’s Literature, ed. C. Buck (& 220 Italian entries) (London, Bloomsbury, 1992) R809BLO
________, Italian Women’s Autobiographical Writings in the Twentieth Century: Constructing Subjects (Madison, New Jersey, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2017) GEN859/FAN
N. de Giovanni, Carta di donna: narratrici italiane del novecento (Turin, Sei, 1996) 853.08DEG
A. Giorgio, Writing Mothers and Daughters: Renegotiating the Mother in Western European Narratives by Women (Berghahn, 2002) 809.3GIO
C. Heilbrun, Reinventing Womanhood (Gollancz, 1979) 305.4HEI
C. Lazzaro-Weis, From Margins to Mainstream: Feminism and Fictional Modes in Italian Women’s Writing 1968-1990 (Philadelphia, University of Penn Press, 1993) 853.09LAZ
M.O. Marotti, Italian Women Writers from the Renaissance to the Present (Philadelphia, Penn State University Press, 1996) 850.9
K. Mitchell & H. Sanson, Women and Gender in Post-Unification Italy: Between Private and Public Spheres (Peter Lang, 2013) 305.40945MIT
P. Morris, Literature and Feminism (Oxford, Blackwell, 1993) 801.95MOR
Penelope Morris, Women and Italy: An interdisciplinary Study (Palgrave MacMillan, 2006) 305.40945MOR
M. Olivieri, Tra libertà e solitudine: saggi su letteratura e giornalismo femminile (Rome, Edizioni dell’Ateneo, 1990) GEN850.9OLI
L. Panizza & S. Wood, A History of Women’s Writing in Italy (Cambridge U.P., 2000) GEN850.9PAN
P. Sambuco, Italian Women Writers, 1800-2000: Boundaries, Borders and Transgression (Madison, Fairleigh Dickinson U.P., 2015) 850.9SAM
A. Testaferri, Donna: Women in Italian Culture (Toronto U.P., 1989) 850.09TES
S. Wood, Italian Women’s Writing 1860-1994 (London, Athlone Press, 1995) 850.09WOO

On Lessico famigliare:
G.S. Katz, & A.M. Jeannet (eds.), Natalia Ginzburg: A Voice of the Twentieth Century (2000) 10.3138/9781442677579
J. Woolf, ‘Silent Witness: Memory and Omission in Natalia Ginzburg’s “Family Sayings”’, Cambridge Quarterly, 25.3 (1996), 243–62

On La Storia:
G. Zlobnicki Kalay, The Theme of Childhood in Elsa Morante (1996) GEN 853/MOR/K
S. Lucamante & S. Wood, Under Arturo’s Star: The Cultural Legacy of Elsa Morante (2006) 853/MOR/L
S. Lucamante, Elsa Morante’s Politics of Writing (2014)

On La parola ebreo:
G. Minghelli, ‘What’s in a Word? Rosetta Loy’s Search of History in Childhood’, MLN, 116:1 (2001), 162-176
G. Cinelli, ‘Silenzi e verità ne La parola ebreo di Rosetta Loy’, MLN, 123:1 (2008), 8-21
S. Marchetti, ‘Private memory, Public History, and Testimony in Rosetta Loy’s La parola ebreo’, in Memoria collettiva e memoria privata: il ricordo della Shoah come politica sociale, ed. by S. Lucamante, and others (Utrecht: Utrecht Publishing and Archiving Services, 2008), pp. 111-122

Name Role
Dr Bianca Cataldi Lecturer / Co-Lecturer
Professor Ursula Fanning Lecturer / Co-Lecturer
Dr Mara Josi Lecturer / Co-Lecturer