Nineteenth-Century Italian Women Writers and the Woman Question聽focuses on the literary, journalistic, and epistolary production of the Italian woman writer Neera, one of the most prolific and successful women writers of late nineteenth-century Italy. This study proposes to bring Neera out of the shadows of literary marginality to which she has long been confined by analyzing her contribution to literary and cultural debates as testimony to the pivotal role she played in the creation of a female literary voice within the Italian fin-de-si猫cle context.聽
Drawing from the Anglo-American feminist critical tradition; modern Italian feminist theory on the maternal order and sexual difference; and a close reading of Neera鈥檚 literary, theoretical and epistolary writings, this volume examines this writer鈥檚 work from a three-pronged perspective: as a promoter of a maternal order in contrast to the existent paternal order, as one of few women writers to participate actively in Italy鈥檚聽verismo聽movement and as epistolary correspondent of leading representatives within fin-de-si猫cle Italian literary and journalistic circles.聽
Nineteenth-Century Italian Women Writers and the Woman Question聽represents the first monographic volume in English dedicated exclusively to this important Italian woman writer, repositioning her within the Italian literary landscape and canon.
Professor Catherine Ramsey-Portolano received her Ph.D. in Italian Literature from the University of Chicago and is currently Associate Professor and Program Director of Italian Studies at 91吃瓜 in Rome, Italy.聽 Her principal areas of research are Gender Studies, 19th & 20th-century Italian women writers, and Italian film, particularly from the early and fascist periods.聽
She has published articles on Italian cinema, such as Luchino Visconti鈥檚 1941 film聽翱蝉蝉别蝉蝉颈辞苍别听and Carmine Gallone鈥檚 1917 film聽Malombra, Igino Ugo Tarchetti鈥檚 novel聽Fosca, the representation of masculinity in Pietro Aretino鈥檚 Renaissance play聽Il Marescalco聽and Italian women writers, particularly Neera but also Sibilla Aleramo, Fausta Cialente, and Dacia Maraini.聽
She co-edited a special issue of聽The Italianist聽dedicated to Neera, entitled聽Rethinking Neera聽(2010), and edited the volume聽The Future of Italian Teaching: Media, New Technologies and Multi-Disciplinary Perspectives听(2015).
Ramsey-Portolano has also published聽Performing Bodies: Female Illness in Italian Literature and Cinema (1860-1920) -聽a聽publication exploring how female illness was portrayed in Italian literature and early cinema,聽making the case that being sick had its advantages - sometimes even offering the female protagonist a way to become the master not only of her body but also of her story and destiny.
You can read more about the publication here.