Fashioning Italian Women, Fashioning a Nation. Sociability and Women's Identity (1780s-1860s)

FAIN: FA-55838-11

Irene Zanini-Cordi
Florida State University (Tallahassee, FL 32306-0001)

Fashioning Italian Women, Fashioning a Nation. Sociability and Women's Identity (1780s-1860s) explores the writings of those who held literary salons from just before the French Revolution (1780s) until the unification of Italy (1860s) and focuses on the shifting roles and identities of Italian women. My book presents the English reader with the first systematic analysis of the writings on gender and nationality of the salonnières, writings that, in many cases, have never been treated by scholarship. The literary salon engenders a female identity enmeshed with national identity. Its semipublic quality, I claim, is reflected in a formal and thematic change in women's literary production: from poems of imitation, private improvisations and public speeches, they turn to letters, translations, newspaper articles and novels, thus shaping their own literary identity. This work appeals both to a general public and to scholars and students of literature, history and cultural studies.