Fall 2012
01:560:362
WOMEN’S LIVES AND LITERATURE
Instructor: Prof. Andrea Baldi
Italian Department
84 College Avenue
Phone # 732-932-7031
Monday and Wednesday, 1:10-2:30 pm
Office Hours: W 2:30-3:30 pm and by appointment
email: abaldi@rci.rutgers.edu
Course description: The course–taught in English–aims at introducing undergraduate students to some of
the foremost issues concerning contemporary women’s writing in the Italian context. For a long time such
questions have been conveniently forgotten or evaded (i.e. repressed and erased) in literary and critical
debates, and most of these women writers are still excluded from the canon. Only in recent years the
specificity and significance of these works have been recognized, in both the American and the Italian
intellectual arenas, thus provoking an insightful and thorough critical inquiry. The result of this body of
research has been the reappraisal and an enriched understanding of pivotal texts, whose novelty and
peculiarity had been ignored. These works testify to women’s struggle toward social and economic freedom
and the conquest of knowledge, from the end of the 19 th century to the present. Some of them also
illustrate original models of political engagement.
The course will focus on the features of women’s writing that react against women’s marginalization,
fashioning forms of resistance to patriarchal culture and defining new models of agency. We will analyze
the historical, cultural, social and economic conflicts that these works reflect and denounce.
Learning Outcome Goals:
The course aims to provide students with an in-depth knowledge of key cultural, social, and gender issues
related to women’s lives and literary production in the Italian context from the late 19th to the present.
Through readings, class discussions, and written assignments, the course is designed to foster the
development of essential analytical and critical skills that students can apply to diverse historical periods
and cultural frameworks.
Core Curriculum Learning Goals (IIC, o and p)
This course satisfies Part II, Areas of Inquiry of the Core Curriculum Requirements, area of inquiry C, goals
o and p.
At the end of the course students will be able to:
o. Examine critically theoretical issues concerning the nature of reality, human experience, knowledge,
value, and the cultural production related to the topics addressed.
p. Analyze arts and literatures in themselves and in relation to specific histories, values, languages,
cultures, and technologies.
Required Texts:
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Sibilla Aleramo. A Woman. Translated from the Italian, and with an Afterword by Rosalind Delmar. Los
Angeles: University of California Press, 1980 (ISBN: 9780520049499; pbk).
Grazia Deledda. Cosima. Translated from the Italian by Martha King. New York: Italica Press, 1988 (ISBN:
9780934977067; pbk).
Neera, Teresa. Translated from the Italian by Martha King. Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1998
(ISBN 0810116626; pbk).
A Reader will be made available by the instructor and posted on SAKAI.
Course Requirements:
The abilities defined in the learning goals will be assessed through oral and written activities.
Active class participation (10%); Students are expected to actively participate in class discussions.
One oral presentation (10%); Students are required to give a 10-minute presentation on a topic discussed
with the instructor. Their performance will be evaluated according to their effectiveness in communicating
as well as the thoroughness of their critical analysis of the subject.
Two 4-page papers (25%); Students are required to analyze a literary or visual text, discussing at least two
sources linked to their topic. They are expected to demonstrate the ability to address and communicate
complex ideas in standard written English.
Midterm exam (25%); The exam comprises two essay questions on the topics discussed in the first part of
the course. It assesses each student’s ability to engage critically with the issues tackled in the course in
relation to their historical, social, and cultural background as well as with the theoretical concepts
expounded in the course.
Final exam (30%); The exam comprises two essay questions on the topics discussed after the Midterm.
It assesses each student’s progress in the ability to engage critically with the issues tackled in the course in
relation to their historical, social, and cultural background as well as with the theoretical concepts
expounded in the course.
Attendance, Participation, and Disabilities Policies.
Due to the nature of the course, consistent class participation is mandatory. If a student misses more than
three classes without medical documentation, her/his grade will be automatically reduced by one fraction
(for instance, an A will become a B+); missing more than five classes will imply a further decrease of a
grade fraction; the same rule will apply for each additional class the student will not attend
Please note: no late assignments and make-up exams.
In case students with disabilities should require any special type of assistance and would like to request
accommodations, they must follow the procedures outlined at:
http://disabilityservices.rutgers.edu/request.html
Academic Integrity and Plagiarism
In order to avoid plagiarism (the representation of the words or ideas of others as one’s own), every
quotation must be indentified by quotation marks or appropriate indentation and must be properly cited in
the text or in a footnote. Always acknowledge your sources clearly and completely when you paraphrase
or summarize material from another source (in print, electronic, or other medium) on whole or in part. If you
are in doubt, please consult the policy on plagiarism and academic integrity at Rutgers and do not hesitate
to ask for clarifications, if needed.
http://academicintegrity.rutgers.edu/integrity.shtml
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Syllabus
September 5
Introduction to the course
September 10
Matilde Serao, “Checchina’s Virtue” (selections)
September 12
Matilde Serao, “Checchina’s Virtue” (selections)
Critical reading: S. Gilbert and S. Gubar, The Madwoman in the Attic (selections)
September 17
Neera, Teresa (selections)
Critical reading: L. Re, “Passion and Sexual Difference” (selections)
September 19
Neera, Teresa (selections)
Critical reading: L. Kroha, The Woman Writer in Late Nineteenth-Century Italy
(selections)
September 24
Neera, Teresa (selections)
Critical reading: C. Ramsey-Portolano, ‘Neera the Verist Woman Writer’
September 26
Neera, Teresa (selections)
October 1
Sibilla Aleramo, A Woman (selections)
Critical reading: C. Bucci Lansing, “Historical Reference in a ‘lightly fictionalized
memoir’”
First paper due (4 pages)
October 4
Sibilla Aleramo, A Woman (selections)
Critical reading: U. Fanning, “Sibilla Alearamo’s Una donna”
October 9
Sibilla Aleramo, A Woman (selections)
Critical reading: A. Grimaldi Morosoff, Transfigurations. The Autobiographical
Novels of Sibilla Aleramo (selections)
October 10
Sibilla Aleramo, A Woman (selections)
October 15
Midterm
October 17
October 22
October 24
October 29
Grazia Deledda, Cosima (selections)
Critical reading: S. Wood, ed. The Challenge of the Modern (selections)
Grazia Deledda, Cosima (selections)
Grazia Deledda, Cosima (selections)
Critical reading: R. Pickering-Iazzi, “The Politics of Gender and Genre in Italian
Women’s Autobiography”
Grazia Deledda, Cosima (selections)
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October 31
Women and Fascism: discussion of selected essays
V. De Grazia, How Fascism Ruled Women (selections); screening of a feature
documentary
November 5
Women and War: excerpts from E. Morante’s History. A Novel
Clips from De Sica’s Two Women
Critical reading: L. Re, “Utopian Longing and the Constraints of Racial and Sexual
Difference.”
November 7
Women and War: N. Ginzburg, “The Son of Man”; clips from Rossellini, Rome
Open City
Critical reading: M. Cicioni and N. Prunster, eds. Visions and Revisions. Women in
Italian Culture (selections)
November 12
Women at War: Resistance narratives
R. Viganò, Partisan Wedding: Stories (selections)
Critical reading: J. Slaughter, Women and the Italian Resistance (selections)
November 14
Women and the Holocaust: Millu, Smoke Over Birkenau (selections)
Critical reading: S. Zuccotti, The Italians and the Holocaust
(selections)
Second paper due (4 pages)
November 19
Women and the Holocaust: Millu, Smoke Over Birkenau (selections)
Critical reading: D. Bankier, editor. The Jews are Coming Back (selections)
November 26
After the War: Anna Maria Ortese, “A Pair of Glasses”
November 28
The Everyday: Clara Sereni, Keeping House (selections)
Critical reading: G. Miceli Jeffries, “Introduction” to Clara Sereni, Keeping House,
1-20
December 3
The Everyday: Clara Sereni, Keeping House (selections)
Critical reading: G. Menozzi, “Food and Subjectivity in Clara Sereni’s
Casalinghitudine.”
December 5
Women and Domestic Violence: S. Tamaro, “Monday, Again”; D. Maraini,
“Shadows.”
N. Di Ciolla McGowan, “Anima Parvuli: a Child’s Destiny”
December 10
Conclusions
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Selected Bibliography
Bankier, David (editor). The Jews are Coming Back: The Return of the Jews to their Countries of Origin
after WW II. New York: University of Cambridge Press, 2005
Bucci Lansing, Celia. “Historical Reference in a ‘lightly fictionalized memoir’: Sibilla Aleramo’s A Woman.”
Romance Language Annual, 2 (1990)
Cicioni, Mirna and Nicole Prunster, eds. Visions and Revisions. Women in Italian Culture.
Providence/Oxford: Berg, 1993
De Grazia, Victoria. How Fascism Ruled Women: Italy, 1920-1945. Los Angeles: University of California
Press, 1992
Della Coletta, Cristina. Plotting the Past. Metamorphoses of Historical Narrative in Modern Italian Fiction.
West Lafayette, IN: Purdue UP, 1996
Di Ciolla McGowan, Nicoletta. “Anima Parvuli: a Child’s Destiny according to Susanna Tamaro,” Forum
Italicum 33 (1999): 459-484
Fanning, Ursula. “Sibilla Aleramo’s Una donna: A Case Study in Women's Autobiographical Fiction,”
Italianist 1999; 19: 164-77
Gilbert, Sandra M. and Susan Gubar. The Madwoman in the Attic. The Woman Writer
and the Nineteenth Century Literary Imagination. New Haven: Yale UP, 1979
Gottlied, Sidney, editor. Roberto Rossellini’s Rome Open City. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2004
Grimaldi Morosoff, Anna. Transfigurations. The Autobiographical Novels of Sibilla Aleramo. New York:
Peter Lang, 1999
Kroha, Lucienne. The Woman Writer in Late Nineteenth-Century Italy: Gender and the Formation of
Literary Identity. Lewinston, Queenston, Lampeter: Edwin Mellen Press, 1992
Maraini, Dacia. “Shadows,” Darkness. Transl. Martha King. South Royalton: Steerforth Press, 2002. 152162.
Marcus, Millicent. “Pina’s pregnancy, traumatic realism, and the after-life of Open City,” Italica Winter 2008
Menozzi, Giuliana. “Food and Subjectivity in Clara Sereni’s Casalinghitudine.” Italica. 71, 2 (1994): 217-227
Miceli Jeffries, Giovanna. “Caring and Nurturing in Italian Women’s Theory and Fiction: A Reappraisal.” In
Feminine Feminists: Cultural Practices in Italy. Edited by Giovanna Miceli Jeffries. Minneapolis: University
of Minnesota Press, 1994, 87-108.
Miceli Jeffries, Giovanna. “Unsigned History: Silent, Micro Technologies of Gender in the Narratives of the
Quotidian.” In Gendering Italian Fiction. Edited. by Ornella Marotti and Gabriella Brooke. Cranbury:
Associated University Presses, 1999, 71-84
5
Millu, Liana. Smoke over Birkenau. Ttranslated from the Italian by Lynne Sharon Schwartz. Philadelphia:
Jewish Publication Society, 1991
Orton, Marie and Graziella Parati, editors. Multicultural Literature in Contemporary Italy. Madison: Fairleigh
Dickinson University Press, 2007
Parati Graziella, editor. Mediterranean Crossroads: Migration Literature in Italy. Madison: Fairleigh
Dickinson University Press; London: Associated University Presses, 1999
Pickering-Iazzi, Robin. “The Politics of Gender and Genre in Italian Women’s Autobiography of the Interwar
Years.” Italica 71. 2 (Spring 1994): 176-97
Pickering-Iazzi, Robin. “Designing Mothers: Images of Motherhood in Novels by Aleramo, Morante,
Maraini, and Fallaci,” Annali d'Italianistica 7 (1989): 325-340
Ramsey-Portolano, Catherine. ‘Neera the Verist Woman Writer’, Italica 81, 3 (2004), 351-366
Re, Lucia. “Passion and Sexual Difference: The Risorgimento and the Gendering of Writing in NineteenthCentury Italian Culture,” in Making and Remaking Italy: The Cultivation of National Identity around the
Risorgimento, edited by Albert R. Ascoli and Krystyna von Henneberg. New York: Berg, 2001, 155-201.
Re, Lucia. “Utopian Longing and the Constraints of Racial and Sexual Difference in Elsa Morante’s La
Storia,” Italica, Vol. 70, No. 3 (Autumn, 1993): 361-375
Rorato, Laura. “Childhood Prisons. Denied Dreams and Denied Realities: The Ritualization of Pain in the
Novels of Susanna Tamaro,” Romance Studies 28 (1996): 61-78
Salsini, Laura. “Susanna Tamaro.” In Encyclopedia of Italian Literary Studies. Edited by Gaetana Marrone
with Paolo Puppa and Luca Somigli. New York–London: Routledge, 2007. 1819-1821.
Serao, Matilde. “Checchina’s Virtue.” In Arslan, Antonia and Gabriella Romani, editors. Writing to Delight.
Italian Short Stories by Nineteenth-Century Women Writers. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2006.
19-57
Sereni, Clara. Keeping House. A Novel in Recipes. Translated by Giovanna Miceli Jeffries and Susan
Briziarelli. Albany: State University of N.Y. Press, 2005
Slaughter, Jane. Women and the Italian Resistance, 1943-45. Denver: Arden Press, 1997
Tamaro, Susanna, “Monday Again”. In For Solo Voice. Translated by Sharon Wood. Manchester: Carcanet,
1995. 1-9
Viganò, Renata. Partisan Wedding: Stories. Translated with an introduction by Suzanne Branciforte.
Columbia-London: University of Missouri Press, 1999
Wood, Sharon (editor). The Challenge of the Modern: Essays on Grazia Deledda. Leicester: Troubador,
2007
6
Zuccotti, Susan. The Italians and the Holocaust: Persecution, Rescue, and Survival. New York: Basic
Books, 1987
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