Mothers of Invention

Mothers of Invention

Women, Italian Fascism, and Culture

Robin Pickering-Iazzi, editor

$26.50 Paper
ISBN: 0-8166-2651-0
ISBN-13: 978-0-8166-2651-9

The first in-depth look at culture produced by women in Fascist Italy.

To Mussolini, she was either donna-madre, the lauded domestic model, or donna-crisi, intellectual, masculine, a degenerate type. But woman, as Mothers of Invention shows, was not a category so easily defined or contained by the Italian Fascist state. This volume is the first thorough investigation of culture produced by Italian women during Fascism (1922-1943).

In literature, painting, sculpture, film, and fashion, the contributors explore the politics of invention articulated by these women as they negotiated prevailing ideologies. Essays on women's film spectatorship, on Anna Kuliscioff as the leading feminist in the Socialist party, on Teresa Labriola's concept of Fascist feminism, on futurism and on Irene Brin's reportage on female fashion and self-invention examine women in mass culture, political thought, and daily living.

"Mothers of Invention is a fascinating study of the 'politics of invention' articulated by women in mass culture, political thought, and daily life during the Fascist period. In short, Robin Pickering-Iazzi's book is an appropriately interdisciplinary study of cultural production and gender during Fascism. The book makes a significant and much-needed contribution not only to Italian studies but also to feminist theory and cultural studies/cultural history." —Italica

"Addressing the performative value of the images of female identity produced by women artists and intellectuals under the regime, Mothers of Invention situates several women's inventive practices for negotioating, subverting, and transgressing prevailing ideologies to advance a politics of personal and collective autonomy in fascist Italy." —Canadian Review of American Studies

Contributors: Rosalia Colombo Ascari, Fiora A. Bassanese, Maurizia Boscagli, Emily Braun, Carole C. Gallucci, Mariolina Graziosi, Clara Orban, Lucia Re, Jacqueline Reich, and Barbara Spackman.

Robin Pickering-Iazzi is associate professor of Italian at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee.

280 pages | 9 figures | 5 7/8 x 9 | 1995



Mothers of Invention *Women, Italian Fascism, and Culture* Robin Pickering-Iazzi, editor		$26.50 Paper ISBN: 0-8166-2651-0 ISBN-13: 978-0-8166-2651-9
The first in-depth look at culture produced by women in Fascist Italy. To Mussolini, she was either donna-madre, the lauded domestic model, or donna-crisi, intellectual, masculine, a degenerate type. But woman, as Mothers of Invention shows, was not a category so easily defined or contained by the Italian Fascist state. This volume is the first thorough investigation of culture produced by Italian women during Fascism (1922-1943). In literature, painting, sculpture, film, and fashion, the contributors explore the politics of invention articulated by these women as they negotiated prevailing ideologies. Essays on women's film spectatorship, on Anna Kuliscioff as the leading feminist in the Socialist party, on Teresa Labriola's concept of Fascist feminism, on futurism and on Irene Brin's reportage on female fashion and self-invention examine women in mass culture, political thought, and daily living. "Mothers of Invention is a fascinating study of the 'politics of invention' articulated by women in mass culture, political thought, and daily life during the Fascist period. In short, Robin Pickering-Iazzi's book is an appropriately interdisciplinary study of cultural production and gender during Fascism. The book makes a significant and much-needed contribution not only to Italian studies but also to feminist theory and cultural studies/cultural history." —Italica "Addressing the performative value of the images of female identity produced by women artists and intellectuals under the regime, Mothers of Invention situates several women's inventive practices for negotioating, subverting, and transgressing prevailing ideologies to advance a politics of personal and collective autonomy in fascist Italy." —Canadian Review of American Studies Contributors: Rosalia Colombo Ascari, Fiora A. Bassanese, Maurizia Boscagli, Emily Braun, Carole C. Gallucci, Mariolina Graziosi, Clara Orban, Lucia Re, Jacqueline Reich, and Barbara Spackman. Robin Pickering-Iazzi is associate professor of Italian at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. 280 pages \| 9 figures \| 5 7/8 x 9 \| 1995