Gendered Genres: Female Experiences and Narrative Patterns in the Works of Matilde SeraoMatilde Serao's richly detailed narratives created a metamorphical city of women negotiating the social and cultural byways of turn-of-the-century Italy. With each text, Serao (1856-1927) added another stratum to her imaginary metropolis, grounding her works in realistic detail and acute social observation. Over the course of almost thirty novels, more than one hundred short stories, and innumerable newspaper articles, Serao articulated her own vision of female destiny in a society governed by traditional, often restrictive, paradigms of female behavior. This study examines how Serao refashioned traditional genres throughout her long literary career, a narrative strategy that allowed her to focus specifically on the depiction of female experiences. |
Contents
Acknowledgments | 9 |
Realist Revisions | 28 |
Romantic Interlude | 73 |
Family Gothic | 116 |
A Literary Legacy | 148 |
178 | |
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Ada Negri Addio amore Anna Anna Banti Anna's ballerina Beatrice becomes behavior Bianca Maria Bildungsroman Carmela Cesare Chiarina conventional create critics cultural Cuore infermo death despite destiny emotional examination example exploration female authors female characters female experiences female protagonists female sexuality feminine feminist femme fatale fiction fictive figure Garzanti gender genre Giovannino Gothic fiction Gothic literature Gothic Novels Gothic text Grazia Deledda Harrowitz heroine's heroines husband indicated parenthetically Isolina Italian journalist Lalla letteratura literary Livia lover Lucia male mano tagliata Marcello marriage married maternal Matilde Serao Milan mother Naples Nicoletta nineteenth-century novel passion patriarchal Paul Bourget Pietro Pancrazi popular literature portrayal psychic reader reading realist texts relationship reveals role romance narrative romance novel romance texts romanzo della fanciulla scene Serao's depiction Serao's texts short story structure Subsequent references Suor Giovanna tenets Teresa tion traditional turn-of-the-century Italy University Press verismo virtù di Checchina woman women writers writing young girl