The Female Voice in Italian Narrative of the 1930S
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The Female Voice in Italian Narrative of the 1930s Susannah Mary Wintersgill University College London This thesis is submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy ProQuest Number: U643329 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest. ProQuest U643329 Published by ProQuest LLC(2016). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Abstract This thesis represents a study of Italian female narrative of the 1930s, a period which has been regarded as a hiatus in female literary production in Italy. Focusing on the work of Anna Banti, Maria Bellonci, Fausta Cialente, Alba de Céspedes, Gianna Manzini, Paola Masino, Elsa Morante, and Anna Maria Ortese, I site their early literary production in the political, social, and cultural context of 1930s’ Italy and reveal how these writers not only created models of female subjectivity which challenged the dominant representations of femininity but also how they came to be regarded as a vital new force in Italian narrative at a time when the Fascist regime was at the height of its power. The thesis is composed of two parts. The first part, which uses a historical and bibliographical approach, discusses the reception of women writers by the critics, the public, and the regime; the second part, which draws on socio-historical research into women’s lives, explores their search for self-identity as both women and writers. The first chapter examines how women's writing moved from a position of marginalisation to one of increased respect within the literary establishment during the thirties. The second chapter analyses the complex relationship between women writers and the regime, whose ambiguous status as a supporter of female culture yet symbol of patriarchal repression elicited both allegiance and dissent in the female literary community. In chapter three, I discuss the dominant models of womanhood from the period and show how women used the power of writing to rebel against these artificial images of femininity. Finally, in chapter four, I examine the influence of foreign literature on female narrative, contrasting the impact of the modernist aesthetic of Virginia Woolf and Katherine Mansfield with the influence of American realism on young male writers. Contents Acknowledgements INTRODUCTION 6 The new generation 7 Defining a decade 10 Revising the canon: the politics of memory 10 The flowering of female narrative 16 Rewriting the thirties 17 CHAPTER ONE 21 From scribacchine to amazzoni: The Changing Status of Women’s Writing in the 1930s 1.1 Introduction 21 1.2 The perception of women’s writing prior to 1930 22 1.2.1 The pre-war period and the pericolo roseo 22 1.2.2 The post-war period and the scribacchine 27 1.3 The key female novels of the 1930s 33 1.3.1 Tempo innamorato 33 1.3.2 Natalia m d Periferia 38 1.3.3 Maria Zef and the mid-1930s 40 1.3.4 Angelici dolori, Itinerario di Paolina, and the late 1930s 43 1.3.5 Nessuno torna indietro and Lucrezia Borgia 48 1.3.6 Rococd, II gioco segreto, and the early 1940s 52 1.4 The publishing industry and women’s writing 55 1.5 The role of the press in promoting women’s writing 59 1.5.1 Newspapers 59 1.5.2 Literary j oumals and magazines 61 1.5.3 Women’s periodicals 66 1.6 Conclusion 72 CHAPTER TWO 73 Women Writers and Fascism 2.1 Introduction 73 2.2 The repression of women by the regime 74 2.2.1 Female employment and education 74 2.3 The regime’s attitude to female culture 79 2.3.1 The campaign for repression 79 2.3.2 The campaign for a separate female cultural sphere 83 2.3.3 The role of women writers in the new Italy 87 2.3.4 Constmcting a Fascist female literature 93 2.3.5 The response to non-conformist women’s writing 101 2.3.6 Censorship 112 2.4 The response by women writers to the regime 114 2.4.1 Challenging Fascist ideology 119 2.5 Conclusion 123 CHAPTER THREE 125 Constructing a Female Identity 3.1 Introduction 125 3.2 The conflicting images of femininity 126 3.2.1 The maschietta and the movie star 126 3.2.2 The Fascist definition of femininity 130 3.2.3 The new Fascist woman 136 3.2.4 The female response to the Fascist ideal 138 3.3 Women writers and female stereotypes 142 3.3.1 The representation of women in the work of romance writers 142 3.3.2 Challenging the myths about womanhood 149 3.4 Representing modem womanhood 160 3.5 Politicising the female 172 3.6 Conclusion 175 CHAPTER FOUR 177 The Search for a Literary Voice and the Influence from Abroad 4.1 Introduction 177 4.2 The search for a literary voice 179 4.2.1 The problematic nature of female literary identity 179 4.2.2 The influence of Sibilla Aleramo 183 4.3 The influence from abroad 188 4.3.1 The growth in the translation market 188 4.3.2 The critical reception of Anglo-American literature 191 4.3.3 The critical reception of Woolf and Mansfield 195 4.3.4 The influence of foreign literature 198 4.3.5 The influence of Woolf and Mansfield 203 4.3.6 Woolf and Mansfield as role models 212 4.3.7 The representation of female experience 216 4.4 Conclusion 220 CONCLUSION 225 BIBLIOGRAPHY 231 Acknowledgements I would like to thank the following people and institutions who have helped me realise this research project. I am very grateful to University College London, The Mount School, York, and the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the awards which enabled me to undertake the research for this thesis. I would like to thank the staff of the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale in both Florence and Rome, the Biblioteca del Centro di Documentazione delle Donne in Bologna, the Archivio Centrale dello Stato in Rome, and the Italian Institute in London, for their help in locating material. A special debt of thanks goes to my supervisor, Emmanuela Tandello, for her support, enthusiasm, and academic guidance throughout this research project. I would also like to express my gratitude to Laura Lepschy and Ann Caesar for their guidance, and to Dilwyn Knox and Patrizia Oliver for their help with administrative tasks. Finally, a special thank-you to my parents for their financial support, to Dona, Caroline, and David for their proof-reading, and above all, to Guy, for all his help and support. Introduction This thesis examines Italian female narrative of the 1930s and offers a reappraisal of a period which has been widely regarded as a hiatus in female literary production in Italy. Focusing on key women writers of the period, who began their literary careers at the height of Fascist rule and who went on to become some of the most notable Italian novelists of the twentieth century, namely Anna Banti (1895-1985), Maria Bellonci (1902-1986), Fausta Cialente (1898-1993), Alba de Céspedes (1911-1997), Gianna Manzini (1896-1974), Paola Masino (1908-1989), Elsa Morante (1912-1985), and Anna Maria Ortese (1914-1998), this research project sites their early literary production in the political, social, and cultural context of 1930s’ Italy and reveals how these ‘new generation writers’, as I have dubbed them, overturned popular prejudice about women’s writing and came to be regarded as a vital new force in Italian narrative. I have chosen the publication of Manzini’s first novel in 1928 and Morante’s first volume of short fiction in 1941 to form the parameters of my research and, within this thirteen-year time frame, I analyse the social, political, and literary influences which shaped the narrative of these new generation writers and the reception of their work by the public, critics, and Fascist regime. Starting with an analysis of the position of women writers in relation to the literary establishment and the regime, I chart the growing support which developed for their writing as a result not only of changes in the press and publishing industry but also the government’s focus on glorifying the cultural achievements of Fascist Italy. I then go on to explore the response of women writers to the conflicting models of womanhood promulgated by conservative forces, and the influence exerted by the modernist aesthetic of Virginia Woolf and Katherine Mansfield. In so doing, I reposition female narrative within the literary environment of 1930s’ Italy and offer an alternative view of a decade which has traditionally been defined in masculine terms. In focusing on female literary production, I am not reading women writers as a separate female tradition, nor do I advocate the notion of difference in their work. While gender provides a useful framework in which to view their writing, it does not serve as the only categorisation. Indeed, gender categorisation was something that the writers who form the subject of my research specifically sought to avoid. Anxious to distance themselves from the pejorative label of letteratura femminile, with its connotations of imitative and sentimental fiction, and keenly aware that separate categorisation reinforced the secondary status of women, they referred to themselves as scrittori and sought equal ranking alongside their male peers.