Goliarda Sapienza in Context

Alberica Bazzoni is lector in Italian at the University of Oxford, UK.Emma Bond is lecturer in Italian and comparative literature at the University of St Andrews, UK.Katrin Wehling-Giorgi is lecturer in Italian at Durham University, UK.

The collection contributes to the recent renewed interest in Sapienza by introducing her to an international audience and contextualizing her work both within a European and Italian context through multiple critical approaches, such as queer, feminist, psychoanalytic, postcolonial, and affect theories. As such, the text sheds light on an intriguing and little-known literary figure of the twentieth century who will be of interest to scholars and students of Italian, European, comparative literature, queer, and women’s studies. Readers will be immediately captured by the editors’ introduction, which not only describes the structure of the collection and the fourteen contributions, but also skillfully explains Sapienza’s literary oblivion through the difficulties she had in publishing her work, her “ex-centric” life, and the originality of her writing. The editors highlight two fascinating periods in Sapienza’s life and literary development.... [T]his volume’s strengths lie in its theoretically rich, carefully wrought, and meticulously documented essays which offer readers a mosaic of intriguing perspectives on the recently rediscovered figure of Goliarda Sapienza.

• AcknowledgmentsIntroduction, Alberica Bazzoni, Emma Bond and Katrin Wehling-GiorgiPart I: Life, Writing and the Ethics of Subjectivity1.Goliarda Sapienza’s Permanent AutobiographyMariagiovanna Andrigo2.Reforging the Maternal Bond: Motherhood, Mother-Daughter Relationships and Female Relationality in Goliarda Sapienza's L’arte della gioia’Aureliana Di Rollo3.“A Backbone Held Together by Joy”: The Transformative Power of L’arte della gioiaAndré Bella4.Nomadic ModestaMonica Farnetti5.Goliarda Sapienza: The Unknown ScriptwriterEmma GobbatoPart II: International Intertextuality6.Goliarda Sapienza’s “French Connections”Charlotte Ross7.“A World without Men”: Interaffectivity and the Function of Shame in the Prison Writings of Goliarda Sapienza and Joan HenryEmma Bond8.Orlando and Modesta: Two Voices for the Freedom of WomenBelen HernandezPart III: The Italian Context9.Beyond the Canon: Goliarda Sapienza and Twentieth Century Italian Literary TraditionLa