Abstract: In the last decades of the 19th century, there was a large group of writers in Italy dealing with various issues that we would nowadays define as gender-related, observing social reality from a point of view strongly geared towards female emancipation. This is the case of Grazia Pierantoni Mancini, a writer of considerable cultural depth known also beyond the borders of Italy. In both her narrative and journalistic output, Grazia Pierantoni Mancini focussed on women, highlighting their suffering due to the poverty, violence and the patriarchal context in which they lived. A fundamental weapon in the struggle to change such a negative reality was the instruction prac-ticed in schools, combined with education in family contexts. Another particularly effective method was the theatre, which was used as a tool for highlighting new behavioural models based on ethical values and the important role that “new women” had to play in society. Mancini’s plays were pub-lished in two different collections, entitled respectively Teatro per fanciulle (1874) and Commedie d’infanzia (1880) (Theatre for Girls and Childhood Comedies), which fully outline the educational ideals that animated her entire literary output, setting out her goal of a moral awakening for young women.
Educating the "new woman": the comedies of Grazia Pierantoni Mancini
Cagnolati
2021-01-01
Abstract
Abstract: In the last decades of the 19th century, there was a large group of writers in Italy dealing with various issues that we would nowadays define as gender-related, observing social reality from a point of view strongly geared towards female emancipation. This is the case of Grazia Pierantoni Mancini, a writer of considerable cultural depth known also beyond the borders of Italy. In both her narrative and journalistic output, Grazia Pierantoni Mancini focussed on women, highlighting their suffering due to the poverty, violence and the patriarchal context in which they lived. A fundamental weapon in the struggle to change such a negative reality was the instruction prac-ticed in schools, combined with education in family contexts. Another particularly effective method was the theatre, which was used as a tool for highlighting new behavioural models based on ethical values and the important role that “new women” had to play in society. Mancini’s plays were pub-lished in two different collections, entitled respectively Teatro per fanciulle (1874) and Commedie d’infanzia (1880) (Theatre for Girls and Childhood Comedies), which fully outline the educational ideals that animated her entire literary output, setting out her goal of a moral awakening for young women.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.