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Donne sciolte. Abbandono e identità femminile nella letteratura italiana

2011; Cambridge University Press; Volume: 32; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.33137/q.i..v32i1.15948

2293-7382

Irene Zanini-Cordi, Patrizia Bettella,

Linguistic Studies and Language Acquisition

Irene Zanini-Cordi examines the frequent but largely overlooked motif of the abandoned woman in Italian literature, ranging from the Medieval and Early Modern female figures of Boccaccio, Ariosto and Tasso, to the contemporary ones of Erminia Dell'Oro and Elena Ferrante.This study consists of an Introduction ("Donna abbandonata: condannata o liberata?")and four chapters, followed by bibliography and index.Zanini-Cordi draws on Ovid's Heroides to identify four archetypal categories of abandoned women: Ariadne, Dido, Circe, and Medea.Each serves as the title figure for one chapter.In the Introduction Zanini-Cordi explains the methodological approach that sustains her study.Absent from critical discourse despite their wide presence in literature, abandoned women are "figure centrali nella mitopoietica occidentale" (7).The scope of the study is then quite vast and the author can only touch upon some aspects of a potentially much wider investigation.The book is particularly important in that, besides the traditional archetypes, it also presents a new archetype of abandoned woman, that emerges in contemporary female writing.Drawing on the feminist theory of Adriana Cavarero's Nonostante Platone, Zanini-Cordi finds in the work of Elena Ferrante new female figures who are "adeguate alla soggettività femminile in quanto pensate dalle donne" (8).For this approach the novelist needs to reject the binary opposition, typical of western thought, that classifies male as active and woman as passive.In chapter 1 ("Arianna.La sedotta.Lamento e paralisi"), where abandoned women are defined by paralysis and lament, Zanini-Cordi examines Boccaccio's Elegia di Madonna Fiammetta, Ariosto's Olimpia in Orlando furioso and the protagonist of Ermina dell'Oro's L'abbandono.Una storia Eritrea (1991).Chapter 2 ("Didone.La vedova.Lacrime e scioglimento") deals with the liminal figure of the widow.In Goldoni's La vedova scaltra (1741) and La donna sola (1757) Zanini-Cordi finds remarkable subversive potential.Goldoni's widows display a form of agency that derives from relative economic freedom and control over their destiny.Chapter 2 then abruptly moves on to Marino Moretti's La vedova Fioravanti (1940) a figure that showcases the process of purification of the widow's uncontrolled sexuality.Chapter 3 ("Circe.La seduttrice.Incanto e metamorfosi") deals with the figure of the seductress, whose effects are enchantment and metamorphosis.Here Zanini-Cordi gives a fine interpretation of Ariosto's Alcina and Tasso's Armida and then examines Circetta, the protagonist of Moderata Fonte's Tredici canti del Floridoro (1581).The chapter then moves on to Fosca, the ugly heroine of Tarchetti's eponymous novel.Zanini-Cordi makes an interesting parallel between Fosca and Dante's femmina balba: in both women the seduction of speech is paired with physical ugliness and both embody man's deepest fears, the mystery of the maternal, the horror of death, the danger of unbridles feelings; the male protagonist must therefore reject Fosca in order to survive her mortiferous effects.The chapter ends with the modern Circe of Sandra Petrignani's Navigazioni di Circe (1997).Here the traditional roles of the myth are reversed: it is Circe who abandons Ulysses and begins to travel and