Addressing the Letter: Italian Women Writers' Epistolary Fiction Contributor(s): Salsini, Laura A. (Author) |
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ISBN: 148752627X ISBN-13: 9781487526276 Publisher: University of Toronto Press OUR PRICE: $29.40 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: August 2020 |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - Literary Criticism | Books & Reading - Literary Criticism | European - Italian - Social Science | Women's Studies |
Dewey: 853.009 |
Physical Information: 0.46" H x 6" W x 9" (0.67 lbs) 202 pages |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description: Women writers of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Italy reinvigorated the modern epistolary novel through their re-fashioning of the genre as a tool for examining women's roles and experiences. Addressing the Letter argues that many epistolary novels purposely tie narrative structure to thematic content, creating in the process powerful texts that reflect and challenge literary and socio-cultural norms. Through the lens of the genre, Laura A. Salsini considers how the works of authors including the Marchesa Colombi, Sibilla Aleramo, Gianna Manzini, Natalia Ginzburg, and Oriana Fallaci highlight such issues as love, the loss of ideals, lack of communication and connection, and feminist ideology. She also analyses what may be the first woman-authored Italian example of epistolary fiction: Orintia Romagnuoli Sacrati's Lettere di Giulia Willet (1818). In their reworking of the epistolary narrative form, Italian women writers challenged dominant assumptions about female behaviours, roles, relationships, and sexuality in modern Italy. |