Volume 44, numéro 3, 2023

EN :

Lidia Poët (1855–1949) and Teresa Labriola (1871–1941) were two pioneers of the fight for women’s rights in Italy. Despite being among the very first Italian women to graduate from the Faculty of Law at the University of Rome and the University of Torino, respectively, they were inescapably limited in the pursuit of professional careers. Inspired by their own personal experiences, both women started openly questioning the restricting values of patriarchal society and the lack of legal and political rights for women in their essays and conference presentations. Not only did they fight their individual battles by triggering public debate, but they also considered it their crucial task to create more awareness among the broader female population. Given the fact that the late nineteenth to early twentieth century was a particularly flourishing time for the periodical press, it is not surprising that both Poët and Labriola soon discovered the endless possibilities of magazines and newspapers. The aim of this essay is to illustrate how these two women turned to the periodical press and used it as a weapon in their quest for women’s legal rights. In addition, it explores the development of a nationalist feminism that emerged from their wartime writings.

EN :

This paper examines depictions of wildlife in accounts of Italian polar exploration—both factual and fictive—at the turn of the 20th century, applying a posthumanist ecocritical perspective to a cultural imaginary encompassing Emilio Salgari’s adventure writings as well as colonial exploration’s science and practice. It begins with two sources revealing an era of exploration marked by implicit animal violence: avant-garde filmmakers Yervant Gianikian and Angela Ricci Lucchi’s Dal polo all’equatore (1986), a reframed version of colonial footage by Luca Comerio, and the chronicle of the Italian North Pole expedition led by the Duke of Abruzzi (1899–1901). Comparative analysis then turns to Salgari’s polar fiction, re-evaluated here as an aspirational vision privileging wildlife observation. I argue for a recalibration of human-animal interactions, highlighting how figurations of accounts of human animal cruelty and animal awareness interweave with the actions of explorers who alternately harmed or protected wildlife.

EN :

This essay analyzes how Ethiopian American Maaza Mengiste’s novel Beneath the Lion’s Gaze (2010) and Somali Italian Igiaba Scego’s memoir La mia casa è dove sono (My Home Is Where I Am, 2010) represent transgenerational colonial trauma through their female protagonists’ relationships to food. Employing Nicholas Abraham and Maria Torok’s theory of transgenerational haunting, the corporeal transmission of Italian colonial trauma is explored. To supplement classic trauma theory, the work of Afrofeminist scholars who posit the importance of intersubjectivity in approaches to trauma is employed. The essay thus explores how these two literary texts render the legacy of colonial violence visceral through an emphasis on the body, the process of transforming somatic symptoms into narrative, and the necessity of community building to working through generational trauma. In their contribution to the formation of a transnational collective memory of Italian colonialism in Ethiopia and Somalia, the texts invite the reader to consider their position in relation to this trauma.

IT :

Nella cultura del Quattro-Cinquecento, nonostante richiami alla responsabilità morale verso gli animali, persiste un atteggiamento antropocentrico di sfruttamento, indifferente al loro dolore. L’ecofemminismo associa animali e donne in un destino condiviso di sottomissione, giustificato dall’assenza di razionalità negli animali e dall’istintualità femminile, che le colloca ai margini dell’umanità, avvicinandole alla categoria “animale.” La mia analisi della novella di Arienti interpreta lo sviluppo narrativo e i rapporti tra i protagonisti (umani e non) per sostenere che la cultura del tempo manipolava l’identità dell’“altro”—per genere e natura—al fine di mantenere l’egemonia patriarcale. Nella novella 45 de Le Porretane, il caos che scaturisce quando una donna si appropria illegittimamente del potere maschile illustra questa dinamica, in particolare attraverso il diritto che la protagonista assume su una pecora, usata come strumento di beffa senza riguardo per la sua sofferenza. Così, Arienti permette temporaneamente alla donna di trascendere la propria condizione di “altro” solo per ribadire la presunta superiorità umana sugli animali e la necessità di controllo sul femminile.

EN :

This article analyzes Veronica Franco’s use of the language of battle and swordsmanship in her Terze Rime, paying particular attention to the poems she wrote in response to a literary attack from an anonymous male writer (usually identified as Maffio Venier). In these texts, Franco describes the act of writing as a sword fight and represents herself as a skilled fencer. I consider Franco’s language of battle and her self-identification as a fighter in relation to the figure of the woman warrior popularized by Renaissance chivalric epics. Moreover, I explore the connections among Franco, her Terze Rime, and the Venetian cult of female figures—most significantly Saint Justina and the Virgin Mary—often represented as defenders of Venetian freedom. More broadly, this article investigates how Franco’s image of the pen as a weapon relates both to contemporary reflections on the position of women in society, as well as on the role and function of the writer in Renaissance Italy.

EN :

The article examines a Latin encomiastic poem by Giovanni Aurelio Augurello (1441–1526), preserved in two published versions that display notable differences. These variations include the poem’s dedication to doge Agostino Barbarigo (1419–1501), the account of events related to Charles VIII’s Italian campaign, and the characterization of the French army. By comparing these versions and analysing key passages, the article hypotesises how and why Augurello revised his text to adapt it to the historical, social and political changes occurring in late 15th and early 16th Venice.

IT :

Il femminile delle professioni è al centro del dibattito sul sessismo linguistico in Italia, soprattutto per quanto riguarda i sostantivi che indicano ruoli professionali di prestigio, come avvocato, ministro o architetto, che spesso vengono declinati al maschile anche quando si riferiscono a una donna. Grazie ai contributi della linguistica femminista, tuttavia, è sempre più diffusa la consapevolezza che l’uso di forme del cosiddetto maschile “non marcato” per indicare referenti femminili è il frutto di una concezione della lingua di stampo androcentrico e sono ormai diverse le istituzioni che ne sconsigliano l’uso e si sono espresse a favore di un linguaggio non sessista.

Nella presente ricerca si è analizzato il trattamento della regola di formazione dei femminili di professioni all’interno delle sezioni grammaticali di quindici testi di italiano L2/LS pubblicati negli ultimi dieci anni con l’obiettivo di osservare se le recenti indicazioni e raccomandazioni abbiano avuto un impatto e siano state assunte come modello linguistico.

Dai risultati emerge che non esiste un’esposizione omogenea della regola in questione e che, sebbene in alcuni casi essa venga illustrata in maniera approfondita, quando si cerca di rendere visibili le donne che svolgono professioni prestigiose, alcuni dei manuali analizzati consigliano l’uso del maschile “non marcato” o forniscono indicazioni approssimative riguardo l’attuale stato della questione.