Italian Feminisms

Presents the past, present, and future of Italian feminism dialogue.Italian feminists of postwar Europe were arguably the most influential group of thinkers and actors to transform the society of late-twentieth-century Italy. Engaging profound issues such as class, labor, and rural and urban disparity, they offered some of the most rigorous, creative, and influential thinking on gendered experience that resonated from the courts to private homes. Across disciplines, borders, and schools of thought, Italian feminists theorized sexual difference, mounted campaigns such as "Pay for Housework," and shared experiences of the everyday and the extraordinary in literature, film, and theater. Now, a quarter into the twenty-first century, amid a new generation of intellectuals and artists, this collection of essays and critical stories explores ongoing developments in Italian feminist thought, its current debates, and future trajectories. In this volume, some of the most celebrated writers in Italy dialogue with an international cohort of scholars to construct a community for new ideas between intellectuals, artists, and activists. The result is a truly inclusive multilingual and multicultural narrative about feminist theory and practice that makes the case for a just—and, therefore, feminist—society. The contemporary vision in these pages is transnational, intercultural, and urgent.