UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles The Body Politic on Stage: Women Writers and Gender in Twentieth-Century Italian Theater A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Italian by Monica Leigh Streifer 2016 © Copyright by Monica Leigh Streifer 2016 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION The Body Politic on Stage: Women Writers and Gender in Twentieth-Century Italian Theater by Monica Leigh Streifer Doctor of Philosophy in Italian University of California, Los Angeles, 2016 Professor Lucia Re, Chair My comparative study of works for the stage by three twentieth-century women writers traces a distinct feminist genealogy in Italian theater. I focus on authors whose plays have been overlooked or merit new interpretation: Amelia Pincherle Rosselli (1870–1954) at the turn of the century, Anna Banti (1895–1985) at mid-century, and Franca Rame (1929–2013) in the 1970s– 1990s. I treat the works of these authors in terms of gender, revealing a vibrant tradition of female playwriting and performance in Italy that foregrounds women’s bodies, lives, and engagement with politics and culture. In exploring the intersections of feminism and theater, I show how drama is a particularly apt medium for the dissemination of feminist themes in the Italian context. Chapter 1 focuses on Rosselli’s emancipationist theater, and is the first study to treat her entire dramatic oeuvre in English. I argue that her plays should be read in light of her political ii activism and commitment to progressive causes, beliefs fostered by her upbringing in a Venetian-Jewish household whose members were dedicated to egalitarian principles. Chapter 2 uses Anna Banti’s Corte Savella as a case study for the modernist feminist practice of historical revisionism—the recasting of historical women as protagonists on the modern stage in order to provide new interpretations of their lives and legacies for contemporary audiences. Chapter 3 is dedicated to the reevaluation of Franca Rame’s life-long theatrical career, showing how she developed as an author and co-author. For Rame, feminism and theater intersect through explicit monologues that harness the power of performance to condemn hypocrisy, sexism, exploitation and violence against women worldwide. Theater has a deep cultural importance and historical legacy in Italy, but the existing canon tends to marginalize women’s voices, experiences, and histories. My dissertation thus addresses a dual critical need: to expand our understanding of the modern Italian theater canon by researching feminist plays; and to offer an in-depth and comparative study that articulates a specific female subjectivity in the theater. iii The dissertation of Monica Leigh Streifer is approved. Thomas J. Harrison Jon Snyder Lucia Re, Committee Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2016 iv Table of Contents Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................................... vii Curriculum Vitae ......................................................................................................................... viii Introduction: Feminism and Theater in Italy .................................................................................. 1 Revising the Canon ...................................................................................................................................5 Feminist Theater: Forging a Tradition, Defining a Practice ......................................................................9 Critical Voices .....................................................................................................................................................11 Radical and Materialist Approaches ....................................................................................................................21 A Working Definition .........................................................................................................................................29 Amelia Pincherle Rosselli .......................................................................................................................33 Anna Banti ...............................................................................................................................................35 Franca Rame ............................................................................................................................................37 1. Women, Body and Soul: The Emancipationist Theater of Amelia Pincherle Rosselli ............ 40 Introduction .............................................................................................................................................40 A Mazzinian Legacy ................................................................................................................................41 Italian Feminism at the Fin de Siècle ......................................................................................................50 Resisting Dominant Ideologies on the Early Twentieth-Century Stage ..................................................58 Staging Female Subjectivity: On Anima .................................................................................................68 The Exceptional Woman and the Every Woman: Illusione and Emma Liona ........................................98 The Venetian Trilogy ............................................................................................................................100 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................................108 2. Women, Body and History: Anna Banti’s Baroque Heroine of the Mid-Century Italian Stage ..................................................................................................................................................... 110 Introduction ...........................................................................................................................................110 Lucia Lopresti ........................................................................................................................................112 Banti and Feminism ...............................................................................................................................114 The Ethics and Style of Adapting Novel to Play ...................................................................................122 Fostering a Feminist Verisimilar ...........................................................................................................131 Staging Corte Savella ............................................................................................................................137 Artemisia Takes the Stage .....................................................................................................................140 The Women of Corte Savella ................................................................................................................166 Gentileschi’s Judith: from Painting to Stage .........................................................................................170 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................................181 3. Women, Body and Politics: Franca Rame’s Feminist Monologues ....................................... 184 v Introduction ...........................................................................................................................................184 Figlia d’arte ...........................................................................................................................................186 Rame and Fo: An Inseparable Partnership ............................................................................................193 Marxism and Feminism: An Uncomfortable Nexus .............................................................................210 Venticinque monologhi per una donna .................................................................................................224 The Prologue .........................................................................................................................................231 Medea ....................................................................................................................................................236 Lo stupro ................................................................................................................................................249 Monologo di una donna araba ..............................................................................................................263 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................................272 Conclusion: Women as Subjects ................................................................................................. 273 Supplementary Materials ............................................................................................................ 278 Images for Chapter 2: ............................................................................................................................278 Videos for Chapter 3: ............................................................................................................................278