Fall

Instructor: Prof.ssa Anne Wingenter

Meeting Day: Wednesday

Meeting Times: 9:30 am - 12:30 pm

Course Description: 

This course explores the history of women's experience in Italy during the 20^th century. It is organized around analyses of key historical moments when there were intersections between challenges to the political order and challenges to the gender order. Across this chronological trajectory course readings, lectures and class discussion will outline the transformation of Italian society, the progressive independence of Italian women, the changing relationship between sexes, and the modification of gender roles. After an introductory examination of the social position(s)* of women in Italy at the turn of the 20^th century, we will turn to early attempts of Italian women to organize in defense of their rights as citizens. We will then look at the impact on gender of industrialization and the First World War before moving on to the simultaneous modernization and repression women experienced during the Fascist regime. The second half of the course will start with a consideration of the degree of rupture or continuity represented by WWII, the Resistance and the immediate post-WWII period. We will then look at the social impact of the ‘economic miracle' and the related expansion of consumer culture and consider the influence of technology and politics on both the individual and the couple in the 1970s and 80s. The course will conclude with an examination of the relatively sudden changes in the social condition of Italian women that have taken place over the last thirty years and consider the open question of how immigration is offering new challenges to he gender order..

*Note: It should be understood that "Italian women's history" is not monolithic: Italy is a country with profound class and regional differences, differences which greatly affect gender roles. Therefore, we will pay considerable attention throughout the course to the diversity of woman's experiences over time.

Learning Outcomes: This course will give you a familiarity with the changing roles of Italian women over the last century and introduce you to a gendered analysis of some key moments of modern Italian history.  More generally, it should sharpen your understanding of the interactions between gender and politics and illustrate how gender identity can change in response to specific historical circumstances.

Required Reading: 

• Victoria DeGrazia, How Fascism Ruled Women: Italy, 1922-1945.  Berkeley, 1992.
• Course Reader (primary and secondary sources)

COURSE REQUIREMENTS: 

1.  Class preparation and participation – 10%

You are responsible for completing each week's readings and should come to class with specific questions and comments in mind.  Students will be asked at the beginning of the semester to volunteer to lead class discussion for each week, but our conversation will depend on the participation of all of the members of the class.  I reserve the right to require written summaries of the readings should it become apparent that students are not keeping up with them.  Lectures in this class deal with specific events, institutions and individuals and the historical debates surrounding them; the readings provide the context for these debates and the general narrative of Italian women’s history.

2.  Mid-Term Exam – 20%

The mid-term will include a variety of question types. These will be drawn from your texts, the reader and from the lectures.

3. Paper Proposal and working bibliography– 15%

You will submit a proposed paper topic and research plan together with a working bibliography

4.  Final Paper – 30%

A final paper, which should be 10-12 pages long, will analyze some aspect of Italian women’s history or the history of gender in Italy. 

5.  Final Exam – 25%  

This will include a variety of question types and will focus on material covered since the mid-term.

Academic Integrity

Work turned in in this class is to be your own.  Plagiarism is grounds for failure of the assignment and possibly the class.  If you have doubts about the proper use/citation of sources, consult me before turning in the assignment in question.

Schedule of Classes 

Week One                  Course Introduction and Overview: Italian women at the turn of the century

Readings:, Joan W. Scott, ‘Gender: A Useful Category of Analysis,’ Bruno Wanrooij, “Preface: Italian Masculinities,”  Donald Meyer, Sex and Power (excerpt) andMadame Fanny Zampini Salazar, “Women in Modern Italy”* Reader

Week Two                  Industrialization, agricultural reform and the challenge of “modernity”

Readings:  De Grazia, pp. 18-30. Anna Cento Bull, From Peasant to Entrepreneur and “Traditional songs of work and protest” (excerpt) Reader

Week Three               Emigration and Gender Roles

Readings:  Maddalena Tirabassi, “Bourgeois Men, Peasant Women,” Linda Reeder, “When the Men left Sutera” * Reader

Week Four                 WWI and Italian Women

Readings: DeGrazia, pp. 1-40, Paola Di Cori, “The Double Gaze,” Reader

Week Five                  The “New Men” of Fascism?

Readings: George Mosse, The Image of Man (excerpt) and F. T. Marinetti, “The Futurist Manifesto,”* Reader

Week Six                    What kind of women for the “New Men” of Fascism?

Readings: DeGrazia, 41-76, 116-165,

Week Seven               Italian women between Imperialism and War

Readings: DeGrazia, 201-233 and Lorenzo Benadusi, “Private Life and Public Morals,” Reader.

Mid Term Exam

Week Eight                WWII and the Resistance

Readings: DeGrazia 272-288, Jomarie Alano, “Armed with a Yellow Mimosa,” and Maria Fraddosio, “The Fallen Hero” Reader

Week Nine                 Post-War Italy – A New Order?

Readings: Ruth Ben-Ghiat, “Unmaking the Fascist Man,” Penelope Morris, “Introduction,” and Molly Tambor, “Prostitutes and Politicians,” Reader

Week Ten                   The Economic Miracle and the transformation of domestic life

Readings: Luisa Tasca, “The Average Housewife in Post-World War II Italy,” Steven Gundle, “Signorina Buonasera,” Penelope Morris “Harem Exposed” and Birnbaum, Liberazione della donna 65-87

Week Eleven       The Italian Feminist Movement and the battles for Divorce

Readings: Wendy Pojmann, “Emancipation or Liberation?” and Documents from Demau and Rivolta femminile,* Reader

Week Twelve             Immigration and Gender Roles

Readings: Luisa Muraro, “The Passion of Feminine Difference beyond Equality,” Lea Melandri, “From Gender Difference to the Individuality of Male and Female,” and Ester Gallo, “Italy is not a good place for men,” Reader

Week Thirteen           A Post-Feminist Society?