Ursula Fanning

Angel vs. monster: Serao's use of the female double

Since Jean Paul Richter introduced the double motif to romantic literature, it has been used effectively by writers as varied as Goethe, Hoffmann, Poe, Dostoevsky, Stevenson, Maupassant and Borges to create drama and irony, and above all, to express the divisions which exist within man.1 Critics too, particularly since the last war, have been fascinated by the literary use of the double. However, the major generic studies on the subject (Funari, 1986; Guerard, 1967; Keppler, 1972; Miller, 1985; Rank, 1979; Rogers, 1972; Rosenfield, 1972; Rutelli, 1985; Tymms, 1949) consider it almost exclusively in relation to male psychology. They take almost no interest in the presentation of the female double. Yet, women writers from the nineteenth century onwards have found this device valuable; and, in this chapter, I intend to analyse the use made of the double by one of these women writers — Matilde Serao — at the end of the nineteenth century.

“Feminist” Fictions? Representations of Self and (M) Other in the Works of Anna Banti

Anna Banti’s writing spans the period 1937–1981. The beginning and the end of her literary production were marked, not coincidentally, I think, by two of her most significant, and most overtly autobiographical, works: Itinerario di Paolina and Un grido lacerante. Throughout her oeuvre, though, Banti deals more covertly with autobiographical issues, posing questions around definitions of self and other which can, I suggest, be crystallized in terms of the opposition self/(M) other.1 Given the timeframe under consideration in this volume as a whole, I will refer primarily to those works produced by Banti between 1945 and 1960. Anna Banti is one of the most significant Italian writers of this period and it is precisely in this time frame that she produced Artemisia her most critically acclaimed work. Artemisia, synthesizes in many respects her views on women, motherhood, and society in both Artemisia’s lifetime (1593–1652) and her own. Central to my argument, indeed, will be a rereading of Artemisia. Prior to offering a close reading of any of Banti’s works, however, I wish to consider two of the problematic aspects of the title of this paper: its use of the adjective “feminist” and the question of the representation of the self in fiction.

WOMEN'S WRITING IN ITALY

Abstract These three texts make an enormous contribution to the ongoing project of mapping, rediscovering, and analysing different forms of womens writing in the Italian context from the earliest works in the volgare, and in Latin, to the end of the 1990s. What is perhaps most surprising, and most interesting, to note is the insistency with which certain themes and stylistic features recur, and are highlighted as significant, from one of these studies to another, notwithstanding their chronological range.

WRITING WOMEN'S WORK: THE AMBIVALENCE OF MATILDE SERAO

AbstractA large proportion of Matilde Seraos fictional characters are women who work outside the home/family structure. The very proliferation of such characters, and the evident interest of their creator in the minute details of their work is, in itself, striking. My interest here centres both on Seraos writing of womens work, and the relationship of her fiction to the reality of working womens lives in Italy in the late nineteenth century. While wishing to avoid any simplistic correlation of womens lived experience and the manner in which Serao represents this in her fiction, I feel it is important to point out that the accuracy of her portrayal of the different experiences of both working-class and middle-class women in the work-force is remarkable. Alongside this painstaking documentation of the lives of working women, however, is to be found a considerable degree of authorial unease, which itself finds different forms of expression according to the social class with which she is dealing. Seraos...