Italian women's autobiographical writings in the twentieth century: constructing subjects

This text highlights the centrality of the autobiographical enterprise to Italian women's writing through the 20th century - a century that has frequently been referred to as the century of the self.

Ursula Fanning addresses the thorny issue of essentialism potentially involved in underlining links between women's writing and autobiographical modes, and ultimately rejects it in favour of an argument based on the cultural, linguistic, and literary marginalization of women writers within the Italian context.

It is concerned with Italian women writers' various ways of grappling with constructions of subjectivity throughout the century and sets out to explore them.