A History of Women's Writing in Italy

by Letizia Panizza, Sharon Wood

Overview

This volume offers a comprehensive historical account of writing by women in Italy. Covering writing from the Middle Ages to the present day, it moves away from narrow definitions of literature, and brings to light other forms of expression such as letter writing, religious and devotional writing, travel writing, and journalism. Contributors point to the considerable practical, social and ideological difficulties faced by women in writing and presenting their work to a wider reading public, but also highlight the determination of women through the centuries in making their voices heard.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521578134
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	01/04/2001
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	378
Product dimensions:	6.06(w) x 9.13(h) x 0.79(d)

About the Author

Letizia Panizza is senior lecturer in Italian at Royal Holloway College, University of London. She is a contributor to The Cambridge History of Italian Literature (1996) on Italian humanists and on the fifteenth century. In Women's Studies she has published a critical edition of Arcangela Tarabotti's Che le donne siano della spezie degli uomini (Women are no less rational than men) (1994). She is also the translator and editor of Tarabotti's Paternal Tyranny (2000), and the editor of Women in Italian Renaissance Culture and Society (1999). She is currently Visiting Professor at the University of Rome, La Sapienza.

Sharon Wood is reader in Italian at Strathclyde University. She has specialised in the study of modern and contemporary narrative, with particualr reference to women's writing. She is the author of Woman as Object: Language and Gender In the Work of Alberto Moravia (1990) and Italian Women's Writing 1860–1994 (1995). In 1993 she published a critical anthology of short stories called Italian Women Writers.

Table of Contents

List of contributors; Acknowledgements; Introduction Letizia Panizza; Part I. The Renaissance, Counter-Reformation and Seventeenth Century: 1. Letter writing, 1350–1650 Maria Luisa Doglio; 2. The fifteenth century: i. Humanism Letizia Panizza, ii. Vernacular poetry and mystery plays Judith Bryce; 3. Lyric poetry Giovanna Rabitti; 4. Fiction, 1560–1650 Virginia Cox; 5. Polemical prose writing 1500–1650 Letizia Panizza; 6. Religious and devotional writing, 1400–1500 Gabriella Zarri; Part II. The Enlightenment and Restoration: 7. Eighteenth-century literature Luisa Ricaldone; 8. Travel writing Ricciarda Ricorda; 9. Journalism, 1750–1850 Verina Jones; 10. Literary critics and scholars, 1700–1850 Adriana Chemello; Part III. The Risorgimento and Modern Italy, 1850–2000: 11. Journalists and essayists, 1850–1915 Silvana Patriarca; 12. The novel, 1870–1920 Lucienne Kroha; 13. The popular novel, 1850–1920 Anna Laura Lepschy; 14. Futurism and fascism, 1914–45 Lucia Re; 15. The novel, 1945–65 Ann Hallamore Caesar; 16. The novel, 1965–2000 Adalgisa Giorgio; 17. Poetry, 1870–2000 Catherine O'Brien; 18 Theatre and cinema, 1945–2000 Aine O'Healy; 19. Aesthetics and critical theory Sharon Wood; Abbreviations; Bibliography.

Editorial Reviews

"This useful and informative volume covers writing from the Renaissance to the present...The book is a welcome addition to the growing list of titles on Italian women's writing, particularly because it includes forms of writing that are exclusively literary." Choice

"This book complements Rinaldina Russell's fine bio-bibliographical Italian Women Writers." Italian Bookshelf

"...an important addition to our knowledge of women's writing...some of the most valuable contributions are precisely those essays that discuss topics beyond the limits of conventional literary genres." Italian Quarterly

"Letizia Panizza and Sharon Wood have brilliantly edited a series of essays reappraising the rich and complex history of women's writing in Italy from the Renaissance to the present...Not only is this text a valuable contribution to the study of women's history but an indispensable introduction to the literary voices of women in Italian history." Comitatus

"A solid introduction to the writings...of women in Italy across seven centuries. This is a well-produced reference work that functions capably as a gendered literary history while concurrently providing...insightful textual analysis." Renaissance Quarterly

From the Publisher