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SUNDAYS @ 6PM (next meeting Sun July 24, discussing A Girl Returned)
ZOOM LINK: https://nyu.zoom.us/j/91740433050?pwd=bk9Lb3hFSWNaM2Y4U1Jyb05YandjQT09
PASSCODE: 814071
Join in person for Italian food & drinks in the Casa garden!!
What we're reading/watching together...
CALENDAR (all meetings @ 6pm, in Casa Italiana garden AND on Zoom)
May 15 Franca Rame, A Woman Alone
May 29 Moderata Fonte, The Merits of Women
June 12 Goliarda Sapienza, The Art of Joy
July 10 Dacia Maraini, In Praise of Disobedience: Claire of Assisi
July 24 Donatella di Pietrantonio, A Girl Returned
Aug 7 Igiaba Scego, Adua
Calendar and Readings
MAY 15 @ 6pm: Franca Rame, Una Donna Sola (A Woman Alone)
FRANCA RAME, A Woman Alone (Una donna sola)
Franca Rame's "A Woman Alone" is the opening monologue for her one-woman play Tutta casa letto e chiesa (literally, "all home, bed, and church"), which she wrote and performed for the first time in the late 1970's.
These short feminist pieces are a kind of Italian antecedent of the Vagina Monologues. In addition to women's sexuality, these pieces also explore the difficulties of balancing work and home, the challenges of motherhood, and domestic violence (though often in a key you might not expect!).
Though Franca Rame's words come to us from a different era, I think today's readers will find that they still have a deep resonance for woman today.
FOR ITALOPHONES: You can find Franca Rame's own performance of Una donna sola (in Italian) in four parts on YouTube (see videos above).
(Unfortunately, the fifth part seems to have been taken down since I watched it a few months ago, I haven't been able to find it anywhere...! :( Read the end in the PDF to see how it ends [or watch the English] because the ending is key!!)
If you would like to use the text as a guide for your viewing, go ahead and take a look at the PDF version of the monologue, which you can download by clicking on the Drive PDF to the right. ------->
Rame_Una donna sola.pdfA WOMAN ALONE (in other languages)
Not confident in your Italian? No problem! This set of monologues has been performed by feminist theater companies across the world, and YouTube has performances of this text in every language from Hindi to Portuguese.
I would recommend as our official English language version the recent theater movie created by the women of Little Muse Theater, which was created during quarantine in 2020. (see below)
MAY 29 @ 6pm: Moderata Fonte, Il Merito delle Donne (The Merits of Women)
This spirited dialogue was written by Moderata Fonte and published in 1600. It was inspired by Boccaccio's Decameron and is a wonderful little piece reflecting on the condition of being a woman.
You can download the Italian version by clicking on the link to the right ——»» (the blue cover)
Fonte_Il merito delle donne.pdf
Sun. June 12 @ 6pm: Goliarda Sapienza, The Art of Joy
On The Art of Joy:
Wikipedia: "The Art of Joy (L'arte della gioia) is an monumental historical Italian novel by Goliarda Sapienza.
Written over a nine-year period the novel was finished in 1976 but was rejected by Italian publishers because of its length (of 540 pages) and its portrayal of a woman unrestrained by conventional morality and traditional feminine roles. It detailed a woman’s pursuit of cultural, financial and sexual independence in early-20th-century Sicily, during which she sleeps with both men and women, commits incest and murders a nun."
From The New York Times: "The Art of Joy revolves around the idea that women deserve to be happy, even if society seems designed to prevent them from being so. Men, Sapienza suggests, have a natural tendency to crush women, yet women can defend themselves against this impulse if only they dare to break some rules."
The New York Times: "Once Too Radical for Italy, Goliarda Sapienza is Belatedly Getting Her Due"
Goliarda Sapienza, L'arte della gioia.pdf^^ Italian version, Chapters 1-11
Sapienza The Art of Joy Ch 1-9.pdf^^ English translation Chapters 1-9
Don't forget that you can auto-translate the subtitles on these videos using the settings if you're having trouble with the Italian!!
For our meeting June 12: Whether you are reading in Italian or English, see if you can make it through the first ten pages or so--that already contains PLENTY to discuss!!!
Whatever else you want to read of this monumental 700-page novel is entirely up to you. I personally am finding it quite a page-turner, but I imagine that this text may not be to everyone's taste............
Sun. July 10 @ 12pm: Dacia Maraini, Chiara di Assisi (In Praise of Disobedience: Clare of Assisi)
GUEST: PROF. JANE TYLUS (YALE), translator of Chiara di Assisi (forthcoming for Rutgers UP)
This week Jane Tylus will be joining us to discuss her new translation of Dacia Maraini's In Praise of Disobedience: Clare of Assisi. Please find the first chapters in Italian below. I have circulated the English manuscript through our email group.
Maraini_Chiara d'assisi.pdf
If you'd like to take a peek at my own notes on this reading, see my Book Club notes here.
Sun. July 24 @ 6pm: Donatella di Pietrantonio, L'arminuta (A Girl Returned)
"A Girl Returned is a powerful novel rendered with sensitivity and verve by Ann Goldstein, translator of the works of Elena Ferrante. Set against the stark, beautiful landscape of Abruzzo in central Italy, this is a compelling story about mothers and daughters, about responsibility, siblings, and caregiving.
Without warning or explanation, an unnamed 13-year-old girl is sent away from the family she has always thought of as hers to live with her birth family: a large, chaotic assortment of individuals whom she has never met and who seem anything but welcoming. Thus begins a new life, one of struggle, tension, and conflict, especially between the young girl and her mother. But in her relationship with Adriana and Vincenzo, two of her newly acquired siblings, she will find the strength to start again and to build a new and enduring sense of self."
Kenyon Review: A Girl Returned
<< 2021 film adaptation of A Girl Returned (trailer)
Di Pietrantonio A Girl Returned 1-30.pdf^^ Italian version pp. 1-30
Di Pietrantonio A Girl Returned Eng 1-30.pdf^^ English version pp. 1-30
Sun. August 7 @ 6pm: Igiaba Scego, Adua
“Utterly sublime. Igiaba Scego strikes the perfect balance between melancholy humor and simmering rage. Adua tells a gripping story of war, migration and family, exposing us to the pain and hope that reside in each encounter.”
-- Maaza Mengiste
Fun Fact: Scego may have modeled her protagonist (at least her professional life) on real-life Eritrean-Italian actress Zeudi Araya. See a recent picture of Araya below (left) as well as the locandina for her most famous film (center).
Link to the full text online in English through NYU Libraries.
You can buy the Italian edition on Kindle for $5.
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