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Literary Criticism Italian

Tigress in the Snow

Motherhood and Literature in Twentieth-Century Italy

by (author) Laura Benedetti

Publisher
University of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Division
Initial publish date
Dec 2006
Category
Italian
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781442610866
    Publish Date
    Dec 2006
    List Price
    $25.95
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9780802097446
    Publish Date
    Dec 2007
    List Price
    $46.00
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9781442685024
    Publish Date
    Dec 2009
    List Price
    $53.00

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Description

The Tigress in the Snow explores how literature reacted to, influenced, and shaped the evolving notion of motherhood in twentieth-century Italy.

From the late-nineteenth century rhetorical celebration of the mother as Madonna, to the Fascist regime's demographic campaign and feminist revisions of the maternal role, Laura Benedetti shows how the mother's social status was a site of constant negotiation in Italy during the last century and how this negotiation came to be represented in literature. To illustrate her theme, she stresses both similarities and differences among four generations of women writers, as well as their complex interaction with their male counterparts, and their reactions to changes in Italian society.

The Tigress in the Snow highlights literature's role in the formation of cultural discourses right up to the dawn of the twenty-first century. An intriguing look at the changing nature of motherhood in a country that has always valued the maternal institution, this volume goes further to show how literature investigates, shapes, and envisions social models for the present and future.

About the author

Laura Benedetti is the Laura and Gaetano De Sole associate professor in Contemporary Italian Culture at Georgetown University.

Laura Benedetti's profile page

Editorial Reviews

'Benedetti focuses her analysis of motherhood in Italian literature on texts written primarily by women authors ranging from early years of the twentieth century to the late 1990s... the result is a fascinating and perceptive analysis of a theme that is a collective obsession in Italian culture.'

Rebecca West