30112 - History of Women in the Contemporary Age (LM)

Course contents

The title of the course is "FEMMINISMS." Women’s thinking and movements, in Europe, in the Americas, in the Arab context, in southern Africa and in the Asian context will be analysed in chronological order, but also showing the deep connections that were established between the various areas of the world. Alongside some thematic reconstructions, starting from the American Revolution and the French Revolution and the publication of the first "manifestos" of contemporary feminism, the lectures will analyse particularly important texts and experiences still hard to define within the scope of “classical” history (centred upon the West and its successive “waves”) of the feminisms. At the end, the students will have understood the complexity of the females thinking and movements in their peculiarity and in a transnational and global perspective.

The course will take place according to this schedule: First Semester, Second period

MON-TUES-WED 1.00 pm – 3 pm (AULA GRANDE, SAN GIOVANNI IN MONTE)

Lessons 1-3: The birth of Feminism in the West

Lesson 4-6: Feminisms and Suffragism in Europe 1860-IWW

Lessons 7-9: Biopolitics in a totalitarian State

Lessons 10-12: The new feminism in the West

Lessons 13-15: Feminisms and culture beyond the West

Readings/Bibliography

All the students will have to bring the following text to the exam:

Maria Pia Casalena, LE ITALIANE E LA STORIA. UN PERCORSO DI GENERE NELLA CULTURA CONTEMPORANEA, Milano, Bruno Mondadori, 2016.

Students ATTENDING classes will bring a further two texts, chosen from the following list or agreed upon following a tutorial with the lecturer:

C. Frattini, Il primo Congresso delle donne italiane, Roma 1908: opinione pubblica e femminismo, Roma, Biblink, 2008

E. Saurer, Melancolia e Risveglio. Donne e religione nell’Europa romantica, Roma, Viella, 2013

R. Pepicelli, Il femminismo islamico: Corano diritti riforme, Roma, Carocci, 2010

E. Schiavon, Interventiste nella Grande Guerra, Firenze, Le Monnier, 2015

A. Rossi-Doria, La libertà delle donne: voci dalla tradizione politica suffragista, Torino, Rosenberg&Sellier, 1990

G. Bonacchi-C. Dau Novelli (a cura di), Culture politiche e dimensioni del femminile nell'Italia del Novecento, Soveria Mannelli, Rubbettino, 2010

Isabella Pera, "Camminare col proprio tempo": il femminismo cristiano di primo Novecento, Roma, Viella, 2016

E. Guerra, Il dilemma della pace. Femministe e pacifiste sulla scena internazionale 1914-1939, Roma, Viella, 2014
M. Miniati, Le "emancipate". Le donne ebree in Italia tra XIX e XX secolo, Roma, Viella, 2008

"Genesis", numero 1-2013: Femminismi nel Mediterraneo (parte monografica)

“Genesis”, numero 2-2011: Attraversare i confini: Pratiche culturali e politiche del femminismo italiano (parte monografica)

"Genesis" numero 2-2009: Femminismi senza frontiere (parte monografica)

"Genesis" numero 2-2005: Femminismi e culture: oltre l'Europa (parte monografica)

S. Benussi, Le donne afroamericane negli Stati Uniti: la lunga lotta per i diritti civili, Milano, FrancoAngeli, 2007

M. Bracke, La nuova politica delle donne, Roma, Edizioni di Storia e letteratura, 2018

P. Stelliferi, Il femminismo a Roma negli anni Settanta, Bologna, Bononia University Press, 2015

A. Frisone, Quando le lavoratrici si ripresero la cultura: femminismo sindacale e corsi 150 ore delle donne a Reggio Emilia, Bologna, Socialmente, 2014

Students NOT ATTENDING classes will bring, in addition to the set text and the two texts chosen from the list, the following essay:

JOAN W. SCOTT, Il genere: un'utile categoria di analisi storica, in P. DI CORI, Altre storie. La critica femminista alla storia, Bologna, Clueb, 1997, pp. 307-347

Teaching methods

Lectures

Reading from the sources, which will give rise to frequent seminar discussions within the lessons themselves

Assessment methods

The assessment of the knowledge will take place for the students ATTENDING classes as well as those NOT ATTENDING by means of an oral test.

The completeness of the information drawn from the texts chosen from the Syllabus, along with the capacity to frame it within a critical context, the mastery of the specific language of the discipline, will be assessed.

Accurate knowledge and excellent expositions will be met with high marks. A knowledge that is at times incomplete, uncertain, with a poor critical framing of the questions, accompanied by an exposition that is not wholly relevant, will be met with grades ranging from fair to satisfactory. Lastly, albeit in the presence of some information, a very weak exposition, the absence of a critical framing and an approximate exposition, will be met with a fail mark.

Office hours

See the website of Maria Pia Casalena