Ramsey-Portolano, Catherine,

Nineteenth-century Italian women writers and the woman questions : the case of Neera / Catherine Ramsey-Portolano. - 1 online resource (153 pages). - Routledge focus on literature .

"Routledge focus".

Cover -- Half Title -- Series Page -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- Preface -- Introduction -- Separate Spheres in Fin-de-Siècle Italy -- Women Writers and Male Critics -- 1 Growing up Female in Fin-de-Siècle Italy -- Writing Personal Experiences and Vocation -- Women Writers and Pseudonyms: Between Private and Public Spheres -- Fin-de-Siècle Italian Women Writers and Their Literary Mothers, Daughters and Sisters -- Neera's "Two Faces" -- 2 From Daughter to Mother in Neera's Work Neera's Daughters: Addio!, Il castigo, Il marito dell'amica, La Regaldina, Teresa, Lydia and L'indomani -- Motherhood and the Maternal in Neera's Theoretical Production -- Neera's Mothers: L'amuleto, La vecchia casa, Il romanzo della fortuna and Duello d'anime -- 3 Neera the Verist Woman Writer -- Naturalism and Verismo -- Neera and the Veristi: Public and Private Exchanges on Verismo -- Teresa, a Verist Novel -- Neera's Post-Verismo Production: Symbolism and Benedetto Croce -- 4 Letter Writing: A Tool of the Trade for Italian Women Writers Letter Writing: A Communicative Tool in Fin-de-Siècle Italy -- Exchanges with Literary Father Figures -- Defending Poetic Ideals -- The Maternal in Neera's Epistolary Exchanges -- Understanding and Solidarity between Women Writers -- Conclusion -- Index

Nineteenth-Century Italian Women Writers and the Woman Question focuses on the literary, journalistic and epistolary production of Italian woman writer Neera, pseudonym for Anna Radius Zuccari, 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-sicle context. 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's literary, theoretical and epistolary writings this volume examines Neera's work from a three-pronged perspective: as promoter of a maternal order in contrast to the existent paternal order, as one of few women writers to participate actively in Italy's verismo movement and as epistolary correspondent of leading representatives within fin-de-sicle Italian literary and journalistic circles. Nineteenth-Century Italian Women Writers and the Woman Question represents the first monographic volume in English dedicated exclusively to this important Italian woman writer, repositioning her within the Italian literary landscape and canon.

9781000190724 1000190722 9781003051688 1003051685 9781000190823 100019082X 9781000190779 1000190773


Neera, 1846-1918 --Criticism and interpretation.


Italian literature--History and criticism.--19th century
Women and literature--History--Italy--19th century.
LITERARY CRITICISM / General

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