Learning Outcomes:

On completion of this module students should be able to: recognize the place of the novels 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, autobiographical writing and 'migrant' and ethnic minority writing and issues of genre; 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; present close analysis of one of the set texts as a group, with a focus on themes and structural features of importance; write a critical essay appropriate to a third-year student of Italian literature, taking due account of critical sources.

Indicative Module Content:

Questions around constructions of identity and alterity in narrative will be addressed, through an interrogation of autobiographical writing, the literature of memory, and 'migrant' and ethnic minority writing. Set texts are Sibilla Aleramo's 'Una donna', Rosetta Loy's 'La parola ebreo' and the edited collection 'Future' (ed. Igiaba Scego).

INDICATIVE OUTLINE OF LECTURES

1. Introduction to the course. Initial approaches: the canon
2. How do women write? Theoretical approaches (including initial considerations on feminist theory, writing the Holocaust and 'migrant' and ethnic minority writing)
3. Aleramo: Contexts - women in Italy at the turn of the century.
4. Una donna: The novel's structure, Autobiographical Fiction.
5. Una donna: Themes and Issues.
6. Loy: Contexts - Memory, autobiographical writing, Holocaust literature
7. La parola ebreo - Structure, genre, themes and issues
8. BREAK (READING WEEK)
9. La parola ebreo: addressing alterity
10. Future: Contexts -'migrant' and ethnic minority writing
11. Future: Close-up on narratives
12. Future: Close-up on stories, and concluding comments

Student Effort Type	Hours
Lectures	11
Tutorial	11
Specified Learning Activities	45
Autonomous Student Learning	45
Total	112

Not applicable to this module.

Not applicable to this module.
 

Assessment Strategy  

Description	Timing		Component Scale		% of Final Grade
Class Test: Seen class test commentary on 1 of 3 passages from each of the set texts	Week 9	n/a	Graded	No	35
Presentation: Group Powerpoint presentation in tutorial/seminar slots; groups randomly assigned; presentation should focus on one set text and should address key themes and structural features	Throughout the Trimester	n/a	Graded	No	15
Examination: 2-hour examination; students must answer 1 comparative essay question from a choice of questions	2 hour End of Trimester Exam	No	Graded	No	50

 

Resit In	Terminal Exam
Spring	Yes - 2 Hour

• Feedback individually to students, post-assessment
• Group/class feedback, post-assessment

Students will receive group feedback post-assessment, in class after their group presentation during the trimester - this will normally be within one week of the presentation; students will receive individual feedback on their in-class commentary test from week 9, normally within 3 weeks of this assessment.

Core texts:
Sibilla Aleramo, Una donna (1906)
Rosetta Loy, La parola ebreo (1997)
Future, ed. Igiaba Scego (2019)

Reading list:
General background
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
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. Lazzzaro-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 Aleramo and Una donna:
M. Angelone, L’apprendistato letterario di Sibilla Aleramo (Naples, Liguori, 1987) GEN853ALE/A
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, “Sibilla Aleramo’s Una donna: A case study in women’s autobiographical fiction”, The italianist, 19, 1999
______, “Generation through Generations: Maternal and Paternal Paradigms in Sibilla Aleramo and Dacia Maraini” in Women’s Writing in Western Europe: Gender, Generation and Legacy (Newcastle, Cambridge Scholars Press, 2007) GEN809.894/GIO
M. Federzoni et. al., Sibilla Aleramo (Florence, La Nuova Italia, 1980) GEN853/ALE/F

On Loy, writing the Holocaust and La parola ebreo:
D. G. Roskies and N. Diamant, Holocaust Literature: A History and Guide, The Tauber Institute for the Study of European Jewry series, 2012 (e-book from library)
G. Minghelli, ‘What’s in a Word? Rosetta Loy’s Search of History in Childhood’, MLN, 116:1 (2001), 162-176 (online article from library)
G. Cinelli, ‘Silenzio e verità ne La parola ebreo di Rosetta Loy’, MLN, 123:1 (2008), 8-21 (online article from library)
S. Lucamante, Forging Shoah memories: Italian women writers, Jewish identity, and the Holocaust (Palgrave, 2014) 850.9 LUC
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 et.al. (Utrecht: Utrecht Publishing and Archiving Services, 2008), pp. 111-122 (on Brightspace)
R. Wilson, 'Time and Remembrance: Rosetta Loy' in Speculative Identities (Routledge, 2000), online from library

On Scego, 'migrant' and ethnic minority writing:
A. Ashna, Activist by Default: An Interview with Igiaba Scego, The Minnesota review (Minneapolis, Minn.), 2020, Volume 94, Issue 1 (online article from library)
A. Hafisi, La letteratura migrante come diario, Studia Universitatis Hereditati, 12/2019, Volume 7, Issue 2 (online article from library)
C. Romeo, From Pecore nere to Future: Anthologizing Intersectional Blackness in Contemporary Italy, Journal of postcolonial writing, 09/2022, Volume 58, Issue 5 (online article from library)
W. Sievers and Vlasta, S., Immigrant and ethnic-minority writers since 1945: fourteen national contexts in Europe (Brill/Rodopi, 2018) 809.8920691
K. Trifiro, L’Europa e lo straniero. Letteratura migrante come performance identitaria, Humanities, 03/2017, Volume 2, Issue 1 (online article from library)

Name	Role
Dr Marco Bellardi	Lecturer / Co-Lecturer

Autumn
Lecture	Offering 1	Week(s) - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12	Fri 11:00 - 11:50
Lecture	Offering 1	Week(s) - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12	Wed 15:00 - 15:50
Autumn