Abstract
In an article entitled ‘The Feminine Vision of Matilde Serao’, an American critic, Judith Jeffrey Howard, has pointed out that, in spite of Serao’s own long and prolific career as a high profile journalist and novelist, ‘there were no Matilde-Serao-lady-journalists’ in her work (Howard, 1975, pp. 68–9).1 It is true that the fact that her own life was highly unorthodox for the times seems to have had little effect on her portrayal of women and their lives. In her novels and short stories she limited herself to ‘the basic feminine roles of her day as she saw them’ (Howard, 1975, p. 68), and ‘therefore constricted not only a woman’s social and economic role, but also her psychic life, to the point of personality distortion’ (Howard, 1975, p. 69). Howard attributes this shortcoming to Serao’s basic ideological conservatism, to the fact that she was ‘a rather outspoken anti-feminist who viewed the world through her perception of her proper role as a woman’ (Howard, 1975, p. 55). Nor is Howard alone in thinking this way: several Italian critics have also assumed Serao’s portrayal of women to be a direct result, or reflection, of her publicly expressed views on women in society.2
This essay was completed with the help of a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Amato, A. (1981) ‘Femminismo e femminilità’, in G. Infusino (ed.), Matilde Serao tra giornalismo e letteratura (Naples: Guida) pp. 103–10.
Arslan Veronese, A. (1977) Dame, droga e galline (Padua: CLEUP).
Auerbach, N. (1982) Women and the Demon: The Life of a Victorian Myth (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press).
Banti, A. (1965) Matilde Serao (Turin: UTET).
Beer, M. (1981) ‘Suicidio e inettitudine. Nota sui romanzi femminili italiani del ventennio 1880–90’, Memoria, ii, pp. 76–88.
Bersani, L. (1982) ‘Le réalisme et la peur du désir’ [1975], in R. Barthes et al., Littérature et réalité (Paris: Seuil), pp. 47–80.
Buzzi, G. (1981) Invito alla lettura di Matilde Serao (Milan: Mursia).
De Nunzio Schilardi, W. (1983) ‘L’antifemminismo di Matilde Serao’, in G. De Donato (ed.), La parabola della donna nella letteratura Italiana dell’Ottocento (Bari, Adriatica Editore) pp. 277–305.
Flaubert, G. (1968) Madame Bovary [1857], translated by A. Russell (Harmondsworth: Penguin).
Howard, J. J. (1975) ‘The Feminine Vision of Matilde Serao’, Italian Quarterly, lxxi, pp. 55–77.
Infusino, G. (1981) ‘Aristocrazia e popolo (Le donne negli scritti di Matilde Serao)’, in G. Infusino (ed.), Matilde Serao tra giornalismo e letteratura (Naples: Guida) pp. 61–72.
Jeuland-Meynaud, M. (1985) ‘I modelli narrativi tardo-romantici nella cultura meridionale’, in Cultura meridionale e letteratura italiana. I modelli narrativi dell’età moderna. Atti dell’ XI Congresso dell’AISLLI (Naples: Loffredo), pp. 405–45.
Martin-Gistucci, M. G. (1973) L’oeuvre romanesque de Mathilde Serao (Grenoble: Presses Universitaires de Grenoble).
Nozzoli, A. (1978) ‘La letteratura femminile in Italia tra Ottocento e Novecento’, in Tabù e coscienza: la condizione femminile nella letteratura Italiana del Novecento (Florence: La Nuova Italia) pp. 1–40.
Palermo, A. (1974) ‘Le due narrative di Matilde Serao’, in Da Mastriani a Viviani: per una storia della letteratura a Napoli fra Otto e Novecento (Naples: Liguori).
Pezzini, I. (1979) ‘Matilde Serao’, in U. Eco et al., Carolina Invernizio, Matilde Serao, Liala (Florence: La Nuova Italia) pp. 61–94.
Pozzato, M. P. (1982) Il romanzo rosa (Milan: Editori Europei Associati).
Scarfoglio, E. (1883) ‘Fantasie dei critici intorno alla Fantasia di Matilde Serao’, Nuova Antologia, 16 August.
Serao, M. (1917) in J. W. Cunliffe and A. Thorndike (eds), The Warner Library (New York: Warner Library Company), vol. xxii.
Serao, M. (1946a) Fantasia [1883] in P. Pancrazi (ed.), Serao, vol. II (Milan: Garzanti) pp. 5–274.
Serao, M. (1946b) La virtù di Checchina in P. Pancrazi (ed.), Serao, vol. 1 (Milan: Garzanti) pp. 863–911.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 1991 Zygmunt G. Barański and Shirley W. Vinall
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Kroha, L. (1991). Matilde Serao’s Fantasia: An Author in Search of a Character. In: Barański, Z.G., Vinall, S.W. (eds) Women and Italy. University of Reading European and International Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-21260-6_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-21260-6_12
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-0-333-45577-7
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-21260-6
eBook Packages: Palgrave Social & Cultural Studies CollectionSocial Sciences (R0)