|
REVIEWS For Laura Assmuth, Helen Barolini, Mario B. Mignone, and Raymond Petrillo Laura
Assmuth. Women’s
Work, Women’s Worth: Changing Lifecourses
in Highland Sardinia. Transactions of the Finnish Anthropological
Society 39 (Saarijarvi: Gummerus Kirajapaino Oy, 1997). 316 pp., maps,
tables, illustrations. In this book Laura
Assmuth recounts the life stories of three generations of Sardinian women for
whom work has always been a primary focus. They come from Baunei, an inland
village fewer than 100 kilometers from Cagliari, Sardinia’s capital. Assmuth
positions these women both generationally and geographically, with a view of
Sardinia as midway in culture between Northern and Southern Italy. She also
locates their stories within the societal changes the island has known — from
la miseria of the pre-war period,
through the miracolo economico of
the late 50s and 60s, to the affluence of the 90s. Begun under the tutelage of
Professor Philip Saltzman, Director of the Mediterranean Anthropology Research
Equipe (MARE) at McGill University, Montreal, hers is a prodigious
undertaking. It is also a feminist
undertaking, for at its heart is the notion that these Baunesi women are
stronger than they seem. “An assumption that women’s home-centredness equals
subordination is simplistic at the very least and in some cases, as in
Sardinia, completely misleading,” Assmuth says in her Introduction (17). Her
interviews go on to show the confidence her women have always had in their
own economic importance. Critical here is the Italian feminist notion of doppia presenza — literally “double
presence.” The term, introduced by Laura Balbo and developed by Chiara
Saraceno, means that married women take part in home life and work life,
juggling the demands and rhythms of both simultaneously. Assmuth explains
that in Baunei — unlike in the United States where working women demand
equality on all fronts, including the home — this concept is not negative.
Rather, it represents a way of life that most young women choose nowadays,
their emanicipazione dependent upon
how successfully they manage this combination of tasks. The above explanation
is only one example of a major strength of Assmuth’s work: namely, her
brilliant understanding of the mores of contemporary Italy. Her justification
of the importance of un posto fisso
— literally, “a fixed place,” or “a steady job” — is a case in point. Assmuth
shows that satisfactions (and prestige) come not from the nature of work
itself, but from the nature of its permanence. This means that, even while
accepting “temporary work” necessary to their economic survival, her women
prefer to define themselves as disoccupate
(“out of work”) rather than as casalinghe
(“housewives”). Thus, they embrace doppia
presenza while waiting for a posto
fisso that may not ever come, given Italy’s current level of
unemployment. She also documents
the importance of other cultural constructs linked to the Italian world of work.
For example, the raccomandazione
(“recommendation”) from someone important is the way to find the steady job.
In addition, one who has the posto
fisso is sistemata — or
publicly “established” in the community. This is because she has been able
to realizzarsi (“realize her full
potential”) in the realm of work. Marriage is still important for both sexes,
says Assmuth, but “it is not the only condition of a woman’s successful sistemazione any more; ideally, a
woman should first have a job (and education), and only then marry” (172). What is interesting
is that, despite their determination to establish themselves in a working
career, Assmuth’s “modern” women still hold family and home as their first
priority. They also want to continue to live in their village. Assmuth
interprets this desire not as excessive parochialism (campanilismo) but rather as a successful way to maximize the
family’s economic and social security. She argues that this Baunei model
supports economists Francesca Bettio and Paola Villa’s concept of
“emancipation in the family” as the Mediterranean woman’s path to
modernization. I was also fascinated
by the fact that, while Assmuth’s work is clearly situated within the
literature on Italy and on Southern Italian women in particular, she departs
from it to create a picture of Baunei that is remarkably similar to the
(Northern Italian) Lucchesia that I know. A pretty radical picture when
compared to the conventional stereotype of La Sarda: a shepherd’s wife,
silent, dressed in long skirts, waiting at the door of her humble abode. This said, I would
have liked more descriptions of lived experience. For example, in her field
notes describing an all-day session baking su pistoccu, the shepherds’ bread, she recounts at length how
female children are socialized into traditional women’s work. But she also
quotes a shrewd elderly woman who calls the practice “like a fashion these
days” (261). This twist shows a sort of symbolic ethnicity not uncommon to Lucchese-American women in the United
States, who continue to make the Christmas Befana cookies. It needs more commentary. Assmuth tells us that
bread baking has turned into a cottage industry: two female founders, with a
cooperative of ten women, have set up a commercial bakery that takes advantage
of local traditions. I would have liked to hear their stories as well. Do
they consider themselves realizzate,
too? I haven’t even
mentioned Assmuth’s very useful discussion of typically marginalized Sardinia
within the “Southern question” and the soon-to-be European Union, to which
she devotes the final third of the book. The breadth of her historical
understanding is a fitting accompaniment to such an ambitious work. A final comment —
while the book contains many tables and interesting photographs, an index to
the text itself would have been useful. A small quibble, however. Women’s Work, Women’s Worth is an
important contribution to studies of gender and identity, especially as such
concepts play themselves out within the world of work. University
of Illinois at Chicago Helen
Barolini, Umbertina.
Afterword Edvige Giunta. New York: Feminist P at CUNY, l999. 453 pp. The republication of
Helen Barolini’s first novel, Umbertina,
by The Feminist Press is cause for celebration because it returns to print a
classic in Italian-American women’s writing. Barolini has skillfully woven a
feminist political agenda into a modernist text, which traces the experiences
of four generations of women in an Italian-American family. Barolini writes a
quest novel in the modernist tradition that is as relevant today as when she
wrote it. Each of the three main characters is on a journey toward self
actualization, and although each marries, becomes pregnant, and is interested
in having a career, the choices each woman must make and the motivations for
those choices are different because they live in different times and
different places. Barolini has written a feminist novel that argues that
Woman is a cultural construct. It is the novel’s structure that makes
Barolini’s intention clear. The novel is divided
into four parts. The Prologue introduces the protagonist, Marguerite, and
presents the reader with her problems. Marguerite questions her role as wife
and mother, wants to find a meaningful career, and a sexually fulfilling relationship.
She is contemplating a divorce and says she wants “to be a person” (6). The Prologue is
followed by “Part One: Umbertina, 1860–1940,” which tells the life story of
Marguerite’s grandmother who immigrated to America from Calabria with her
husband and two children and through her hard work and determination was
able to acquire an importing business, a neighborhood bank, and a
steamship-ticket agency. Umbertina, not her husband, is portrayed as the
driving force behind these acquisitions. By placing the empowered life of
Umbertina right after Marguerite’s questioning of her own, Barolini is
clearly implying that the answers to Marguerite’s questions and the recipe
for a more successful existence lie in a thoughtful understanding of the
immigrant woman. “Part Two: Marguerite, 1927–1973” allows
the protagonist to attempt to become self-actualized and resolve her
problems. Although her psychiatrist urges her to look to her grandmother for
direction, she fails to follow his advice and is ultimately unsuccessful. “Part Three: Tina, 1950–” is the story of
Marguerite’s daughter from her college years until her marriage. Unlike her
mother, Tina goes to Calabria in search of Umbertina for whom she is named.
Although she does not realize that she has the decisiveness of her
great-grandmother, her choices in the area of marriage, and career mirror
Umbertina’s choices. Tina is able to have a non-hierarchical marriage and a
successful career as an scholar. When it was written and subsequently
published in 1979, American Feminism was strongly influenced by the beliefs
of Virginia Woolf, Mary Wollstonecraft, Betty Friedan, and Simon DeBeauvoir.
Their liberal feminist political beliefs on the importance of meaningful
work, the burden of romantic love, the necessity for equality between the
sexes, and marriage as an equal partnership all find their way into
Barolini’s text. What is most interesting and unique about this novel is the
fact that Barolini suggests that the solutions to American women’s problems
that were raised by feminists can be found by closely examining the life and
choices of Umbertina, the protagonist’s illiterate grandmother. Barolini suggests
that within the Italian immigrant community women had self-confidence,
agency, meaningful work, and marriages that were not hierarchical. She
further suggests that these women, as represented by Umbertina, had achieved
many of the goals that American feminists were seeking. Barolini’s text
argues that American cultural norms have confused and weakened
Italian-American women, making them unable to participate in American life in
any self-actualizing way, but if they wish to be agents in their own lives,
they should understand and emulate their empowered immigrant grandmothers. It is impossible not to recognize the
influence of the New Critics theoretical approaches to writing in the
novel’s very tight structure, its use of the leitmotif of the marriage spread,
and its use of irony and metaphor throughout. Barolini has appropriated the
male discourse of the dominant culture and used it to insert into the cannon
of American literature, a text which portrays ethnic lives. Edvige Giunta’s fine
afterword, “An Immigrant Tapestry” provides much information about Barolini
and the publishing history of the text. Her critical remarks about the novel
focus on the recurring image of Umbertina’s “coperta matrimoniale,” which she rightly sees as both a
structuring device and a figure “for the intersecting senses of longing and
loss that both drive and thwart the lives of the characters” (432). Although
Giunta acknowledges that the text is a fictional account of working-class
lives, she praises Barolini’s literary style that “carefully avoids the
nostalgia and sentimentality that at times pervade immigrant literature”
(431). Commentary such as Giunta’s direct the reader to the text’s many
facets and enable it to be taught in courses in American Literature. Future generations of
readers will enjoy the text for the accurate portrayal of the financial and
emotional effects of uprooting on the immigrants and their progeny, as well
as the way the work is truly Italian American. It uses the American liberal
feminist political agenda and modernist structure to reclaim and value immigrant
lives. Philadelphia,
PA Mario
B. Mignone. Italy
Today: At the Crossroads of the New Millennium. Revised Edition. New
York: Peter Lang, 1998. Pp. xviii, 464. The first edition of
Mario B. Mignone’s book on contemporary Italy was published in 1995. This
revised edition is much more extended than the first one and very usefully
updated: It contains about 200 more pages, and many new tables and photograph
illustrations make the text clearer and more informative. The publisher’s
decision to produce a new revised and expanded edition is indeed a
prima-facie demonstration of a well-deserved success. The material dealt
with by Prof. Mignone is not the history of classical Italy, a subject that
is already familiar to American academia. The land of the “grand tour” and
the country of ancient Romans, medieval cities, and Renaissance courts remain
in the background. The main subject is rather, as the title makes clear,
contemporary Italy, a modern nation still very productive and full of
vitality. Here are, in a
synthesis, the major topics of the volume. After a concise and clear
narrative of the nation’s vicissitudes from the revolutionary period of
Risorgimento to the present day, the author represents the tribulations of
recent political changes. The republican Constitution and the numerous
problems generated by the nature of the Italian political system are
discussed. The author highlights in particular the historic consequences of
the presence of several parties and movements of the left, and their impact
on popular culture. In this section of the book, the negative experience of
the “lead years,” and the consequences of terrorism and white-collar crime on
Italian civil society are also represented. An entire chapter deals with
political and cultural relations to the United States. The subject of the
next section is the recent history of Italian economy. The author starts his
narrative from the end of the Second World War, and describes the
reconstruction and the dramatic changes, which transformed Italy into an
industrial power. Such an aggressive structural development has rapidly
propelled Italian society toward an advanced capitalistic system. As a consequence,
capitalism has produced unforeseen contradictions, which are noticeable in
particular in the typically Italian phenomena of the hidden economy, the
vigorous proliferation of small industrial companies, and the notoriously
difficult relationships of labor to state institutions. The most dramatic
problem is however, according to the author, the situation of the South. This
problem is rooted in the very foundation of the modern state, i.e., in the
movement of Risorgimento, but has become all the more urgent, due to the
massive internal migration toward Northern Italy, which took place after the
Second World War. After these
historical presentations, the author investigates the character of contemporary
Italian society through a synchronic approach, and considers in detail all
the problems of education, from kindergarten to university, in the
perspective of teachers and students. Mignone also deals with the delicate
questions of the relationship of the Catholic Church to the secular society,
the role of family values in popular culture, the status of women and the
situation of sexual mores. The last section of
the book illustrates other major issues generated by more recent
transformations in the religious, political and cultural fields, and
represents the most essential traits of present-day society, which is
continually changing under the stimulation of the new means of communication
and the revolutionary developments in industrial organization. The portrait
of Italian culture outlined by Mignone is complex: On the one hand it
represents a very dynamic and ever-changing society, but, on the other hand,
it describes societal values as, at least in part, still shaped by tradition. I hope that the above
outline shows how the volume is to be warmly recommended as an excellent
textbook, which can be profitably adopted in university-level courses on
Italian cultural history. Its significance
however is not limited, in my opinion, to its didactic value. Mario B.
Mignone is not only a scholar and a teacher, but also a writer whose
expression is rooted in a personal perspective, deeply shaped by
immigration. Mignone, a successful university professor, is, at the same
time, an immigrant, who manages to describe his experience of Southern
Italy, his region of origin, and of the country which has become his
homeland. His powerful subjectivity manifests itself through a prose that is
not only strongly opinionated, but often, I would say, passionate. His
writing is full of scientific ideas and historical information. But at the
same time it introduces vivid insights and revealing ideological motives,
such as the indomitable anticommunist feelings, the painful contemplation of
the dramatic conflicts between Northern and Southern Italy, and the pervasive
comparison between Italian and American cultures and institutions. For these reasons,
reviewing Italy Today for this
journal seems to me particularly appropriate. In the context of
Italian-American culture, Mario B. Mignone deserves to occupy a place in the
little and distinguished group of authors, such as Gambino, Tusiani and
Rimanelli, who have dealt, as scholars and writers, with the crucial
experience of the Italians who live, work and produce in the United States. Montclair
State University Raymond
Petrillo, ed. and trans. Contrappunti/Counterpoints. Selected
Prose of Giovanni Cecchetti. New York: Peter Lang, 1997. Pp. 325. In seguito alla
recente scomparsa del critico, poeta, narratore e divulgatore culturale
Giovanni Cecchetti, il volume Contrappunti/Counterpoints
assume un valore del tutto particolare e può essere letto come un testamento
letterario del compianto artista. Prima di passare alla recensione del testo,
sento doveroso ringraziare e congratulare il professor Raymond Petrillo per
l’accurata, dotta, ma soprattutto poetica traduzione e per la postfazione al
testo che è un vero saggio analitico all’opera cecchettiana. La traduzione di
Petrillo è un lavoro riuscitissimo, data la notevole difficoltà che presenta
la poesia e la prosa di Cecchetti, ricca di riferimenti classici, allusioni
dotte, sottili ironie, immagini esoteriche, struttura e trattamento del
tempo narrativo in modo psicologico e spesso anche surrealista. Inoltre la
traduzione del professor Petrillo darà la possibilità di far conoscere
alcune delle opere di Cecchetti anche ai lettori che non conoscono la lingua
italiana e senza dubbio servirà come modello a tutti quelli che si
interessano alla traduzione. Contrappunti/Counterpoints contiene anche in Mio
sodalizio con Giovanni una
interessante, ironica, furba e romanzata introduzione del noto scrittore
Giose Rimanelli che traccia, ricorda e commenta la lunga amicizia e il
sodalizio intellettuale con Cecchetti. Oltre al puro divertimento che si
prova nel leggere l’introduzione di Rimanelli il lettore impara molto su
come sono nate molte delle loro rispettive opere e sul loro sodalizio che
dall’arrivo nel nuovo continente è stato un continuo intrecciarsi e
rincorrersi fraterno e poetico. Contrappunti/Counterpoints contiene una selezione di racconti, saggi e alcune poesie
che per contenuto, ispirazione e tematica possono essere suddivise in tre
gruppi: l’Italia rivista o ritrovata per associazione attraverso il cibo, le
bevande o antiche usanze o attraverso i continui ritorni del poeta. La vita,
il lavoro, lo studio e i sogni nel nuovo continente dell’intellettuale
Cecchetti e una terza categoria i cui scritti riflettono i pensieri, le
osservazioni sull’arte e sulla scrittura e le riflessioni sul progresso umano
e sulla tecnologia, sulla storia o sul significato dell’esistenza umana. In
tutte e tre queste tematiche categorie si ravvedono i modelli che hanno influenzato
il poeta e il prosatore Cecchetti e hanno segnato il suo iter intellettuale:
Dante, Petrarca, Leopardi, Pascoli, D’Annunzio, Pound, Verga. Per motivi di spazio
prenderò come esempio una o due delle opere appartenenti per contenuto ai
raggruppamenti summenzionati per discuterne lo stile e l’originalità
creativa di Cecchetti. L’olio d’oliva e il frantoio e Il pozzo
dell’infanzia sono i racconti più
significativi che per contenuto si rifanno alla giovinezza trascorsa in
Italia e per estensione alla cultura italiana. Nel primo racconto un convegno
di esperti di dietetica riunitosi a Los Angeles per discutere i benefici che
l’olio d’oliva reca alla salute, portano il narratore a ricordare una sua
prima e lontana visita al frantoio con il padre e ai viaggi che il nonno
faceva per poi ricomparire con bottiglioni di olio d’oliva. Il ricordo è
ricco di rimpianto e nostalgia per un mondo scomparso ma serve anche
all’autore per discutere della bontà della dieta nostrana e della alta
civiltà raggiunta dalla cultura mediterranea. Nel secondo racconto
Cecchetti ricorda il suo passato ma attraverso un viaggio fatto in Italia.
Il narratore ricorda la visita alla casa nativa con il fratello che vive in
Italia e mentre osserva la vecchia casa, immagina di rivedere sua madre e
mentalmente ripercorre le decisioni del padre che portarono all’abbandono
della casa natale. In questo racconto il ricordare si attua attraverso il
viaggio e viene sviluppato in una forma narrativa stilisticamente molto
elaborata. La prosa del racconto è molto poetica. Le frasi sono per lo più
brevi. La scelta delle parole è accurata e modellata per colpire il lettore.
Il procedimento narrativo ha lo scopo di avviare il lettore ad una
associazione atemporale e psicologica con il passato. Prendiamo come esempio
l’inizio del raccontino: “Sono stato un pò di tempo nella mia prima città
. . . dove abita mio fratello, l’unico sopravvissuto alle tempeste
degli anni; è per me un punto di riferimento, un filo conduttore. Parto e
ritorno. E vado ad esplorare i segni del passato. Ne son rimasti pochi; ma i
presenti si riallacciano agli assenti” (68). Dopo aver spiegato il legame
sentimentale con il passato e la famiglia, senza dirci esattamente dove si
svolge l’azione, l’autore pone il lettore davanti all’oggetto della visita, a
cui è anche legato il suo passato, senza però menzionarlo direttamente:
“Apparve fra i campi nudi” [la casa dei campi dove era nato]. Questa
apparizione, quasi miracolosa non tiene in considerazione la temporalità
della narrazione ma è folgorante. Dopo questa immagine l’autore rievoca il
suo passato attraverso la descrizione di com’erano i terreni che
circondavano la casa al tempo della sua infanzia: “Nell’infanzia tutto era
pieno di alberi e di filari di viti; ora non c’era che erba scoraggiata e depressa,
ridotta a fili di paglia dal vento ghiacciato” (68). Gli aggettivi
‘scoraggiata’ e ‘depressa’ associati all’erba fanno pensare all’abbandono in
cui si trova la campagna ma soprattutto esprimono figurativamente lo stato
d’animo del narratore che riesce a coinvolgere emotivamente il lettore
personalizzando lo stato dell’erba. Fra i tanti racconti
inclusi nella raccolta che trattano dell’esperienza americana dello
scrittore spicca per contenuto e realizzazione, il piccolo capolavoro Il molo.
Questo breve racconto/sogno contiene molti aspetti della poetica di Cecchetti
che in questo caso sfocia nella tradizione umanistica. In un sogno surreale
l’autore narra di trovarsi su un molo a Malibù davanti all’infinito oceano.
La visione dell’infinità marina lo porta a ricordare il rapporto che l’uomo
ha avuto con il mare. Attraverso le figure di Ulisse, Omero, Eschilo,
Euripide, Cicerone, Nettuno, Dante, Donne, l’autore rievoca i sentimenti
umani provati a contatto con l’infinito e lo sconosciuto. Seguendo l’esempio
degli antichi, Cecchetti/scrittore/narratore racconta la sua esperienza con
il mare, attraverso l’infanzia passata pescando in un rigagnolo, al primo
impatto con il mare per poi arrivare all’attraversata transatlantica e infine
a Malibù. Gli antichi sapevano poco dell’oceano perché conoscevano soltanto
i piccoli mari, Cecchetti seguendo il loro insegnamento descrive la sua
esperienza sul molo californiano e narra in uno stato di dormiveglia
l’incontro su un’isola di strani personaggi simbolici che raccolgono il
petrolio con secchi per poi depositarli in serbatoi. Con Il molo Cecchetti ha
raccontato una nuova esperienza che gli antichi non avevano fatto, ma avendo
preso il loro rapporto con il mare come spunto e modello, l’avventura
californiana dell’autore tramanda la tradizione umanistica e in questo modo
Cecchetti adempie il ruolo di missionario della cultura nel nuovo continente. In Contrappunti/Counterpoints; Musica e poesia, La storia, Io e il mio cane, La casa della saggezza, Il professore
inutile, Il procione di Montreal,
Salita, L’arco di Saint Louis sono ottimi esempi per chi vuole conoscere le idee
cecchettiane riguardo alla poesia, oppure le sue riflessioni sulla traduzione,
la storia, la libertà, la costrizione o lo scopo dell’esistenza umana. Così
come Danza nel deserto e Il telefono
offrono una stimolante riflessione sulla modernità, l’incomunicabilità e la
solitudine dell’essere umana nel benessere moderno. Per concludere il
testo tradotto dal professor Petrillo permette non soltanto a coloro che non
conoscono l’italiano di scoprire gli scritti di Giovanni Cecchetti ma anche a
tutti quelli che non hanno mai letto il vasto lavoro dell’autore di avere un
saggio del suo talento, della sua creatività e originalità. Inoltre la
scelta delle opere incluse nel volume stimola a conoscere meglio la poesia,
la narrativa e la saggistica dell’autore. Le opere incluse danno una
l’immagine di uno studioso e di un’artista che partendo da profonde radici
umanistiche ha accresciuto la sua visione poetica e umana attraverso
l’esperienza americana diventando “il vecchio etrusco della California.”
Forse nessuna altra breve composizione potrebbe dare un’immagine più accurata
della sensibilità di Giovanni Cecchetti da quella che traspare leggendo L’aquilone. In una fresca sera
d’aprile l’autore si lascia trasportare dal volo di un aquilone e dalle voci
gioiose di ragazzi allegri che giocano su un colle vicino all sua abitazione.
“Sono uscito nella sera del giardino a piè d’un colle fecondo di pini. C’era
una brezza calma, ma traboccante di voci giovani e quasi festevoli, e il
riverbero ondulato di sparsi lampioni e di finestre furtive. Ed ho sentito
il vento dentro un velo, batter d’ali, e tutt’a un tratto un grande uccello
bianco ondeggiava in uno sforzo d’immobilità . . .” (278). Il linguaggio
di questa breve visione poetica insieme allo stupore dell’adulto che si
inebria di gioia e si lascia trasportare da un momento magico colgono tutta
la dolcezza, la profondità poetica, la gioia di vivere e l’amore per la
natura di Giovanni Cecchetti. Wake
Forest University |