Letture di genere. Educazione femminile e canone letterario nella prima metà dell’Ottocento

Abstract

This essay examines the role of literature in the construction of female identity in Italy between the Risorgimento and the first decades after 1861. By analyzing texts by male and female authors, from Niccolò Tommaseo to Caterina Franceschi Ferrucci and Giulia Molino Colombini, the essay reconstructs how a literary canon was defined for female writers and readers, excluding novel and favouring poetry and historical narratives. Within a discourse functional to the building of the nation and public morality, the essay identifies several attempts by women writers to experiment new identities and literary models.