This essay draws from the now vast bibliography on spectatorship critique, and proposes a first overview of the relation between cinema and Italian female writers of the post-Wold War II era, as expressed in their writings. Cinema represented one of the earliest formative experiences for an entire generation of writers, often preceding their encounters with literature. The autobiographies of spectators from the times of Calvino and Sciascia appear as a very coherent and surprisingly homogeneous chapter of Italian cultural history. What is partially missing from it, though, is the female gaze: with few exceptions (such as Goliarda Sapienza’s Io, Jean Gabin) the Bildung of female writers from that generation has been told far less often through the filter of cinema. This was probably due to the different kind of spectatorship arising from "gender issues". Our analysis is focused on Elsa Morante and Natalia Gunzburg and a limited pool of cinematographic critiques published between the 1950’s and the 1970’s. Its results illustrate spectarorship profiles and gazing styles that at times blend in with those of other Italian writers from the same generation, but other times stand out as peculiar and in a league of their own.

I pensieri della spettatrice. Due scrittrici davanti al grande schermo

Rizzarelli
2018-01-01

Abstract

This essay draws from the now vast bibliography on spectatorship critique, and proposes a first overview of the relation between cinema and Italian female writers of the post-Wold War II era, as expressed in their writings. Cinema represented one of the earliest formative experiences for an entire generation of writers, often preceding their encounters with literature. The autobiographies of spectators from the times of Calvino and Sciascia appear as a very coherent and surprisingly homogeneous chapter of Italian cultural history. What is partially missing from it, though, is the female gaze: with few exceptions (such as Goliarda Sapienza’s Io, Jean Gabin) the Bildung of female writers from that generation has been told far less often through the filter of cinema. This was probably due to the different kind of spectatorship arising from "gender issues". Our analysis is focused on Elsa Morante and Natalia Gunzburg and a limited pool of cinematographic critiques published between the 1950’s and the 1970’s. Its results illustrate spectarorship profiles and gazing styles that at times blend in with those of other Italian writers from the same generation, but other times stand out as peculiar and in a league of their own.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11769/360131
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