An Italian Space for the Female Fantastic

Sfida al pianeta di Anna Rinonapoli: Intertestualità tra fantascienza ecologica, Stanislaw Lem e Dante

“…La seconda ragione è che la fantascienza è vista come un genere non-italiano, giudizio che dirige gli studiosi italiani a studiare prevalentemente opere anglo-americane, e gli studiosi anglofoni a non studiare la fantascienza italiana. La terza ragione è che studiosi di letteratura femminile hanno stabilito un canone di letteratura femminile che, come tutti i canoni, include e esclude allo stesso tempo, in base a criteri di somiglianza e divergenza (Cannon, 1996: 16–17; Hipkins, 2007: 1–8; Lucamante, 2008: 21–31; Robinson). Le scrittrici canoniche in Italia sono piuttosto legate alla scrittura realista, autobiografica o, a volte, fantastica: solo molto di rado la fantascienza fa parte della selezione.…”

From marginality to integration: Appropriation of space through sociolinguistic competence in Laila Wadia’s Amiche per la pelle

“…In her study of contemporary Italian women writers, Danielle Hipkins (2007: 1) has claimed that ‘in the Italian context the consequences of the millennial exclusion of women from artistic production still have a significant impact on their writing.’ Women writers feel the anxiety of entering a male-dominated literary space that has cast women in the exclusive role of readers for centuries. In the specific case of fiction, Italian women’s remarkable production within this genre has often been unjustly neglected by literary critics solely on the basis of a preconceived notion of fiction being an anomalous writing pursuit for a woman.…”

“…In the specific case of fiction, Italian women’s remarkable production within this genre has often been unjustly neglected by literary critics solely on the basis of a preconceived notion of fiction being an anomalous writing pursuit for a woman. According to Hipkins (2007: 2), the label of ‘woman writer’ is still, therefore, productive in approaching the Italian literary tradition, as it alludes to a space defined by women through a dialogue with the dominant male-authored texts. ‘In fantastic fiction women writers find opportunities to transgress self-consciously many textual boundaries and, by re-forming language, re-shape notions of self and reality.’ The space reclaimed by women writers is, thus, not only a literary space, but also a renewed space of identity that subverts a hegemonic perception of reality.…”