Articles for DWF
Reviews for DWF
Books reviewed by DWF
Translations for DWF
Articles for DWF
Time regained. Reflections on the profession of women historians, 1975, Year
I, n. 1, pp. 37-47
The author analyses the role of women historians.
She believes that the discipline of history is going through a period of crisis.
This crisis is due to the discovery of a new history which is mythical, repetitive
and primitive; by a new economics and by the discovery of a long "duration".
Women who wish to deal with history as a discipline must examine a total history
which is no longer partial as it has been up to the present.
They must refute the existing cultural immobilism and accept the discontinuous: in one word, they must expose themselves to history. Most significantly, the woman historian must give back to history a history of women - i.e., a history where women are active participants and subjects as opposed to passive objects, which are merely acted upon. In this manner history will no longer be conceived as it has been up to today; i.e. "his-story" or history of man, it will become history of all humankind.
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(edited by) On whether women should be allowed to the Study of Arts
and Sciences; academical discourses by various living authors concerning
the education of women (most of them pronounced by the authors themselves) to
the Accademia de' Ricovrati in Padua; 16 June 1723, Year I, n. 1, pp. 151-177
This text is offered as a source of further research, as well as of a critical re-reading.
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The historical Problems of Woman's "inculturation". Notes on the
Middle Ages, 1976, Year I, n.2, pp. 21-47
The woman we know today is but the product of a long historical process. In this process she has learned to be "feminine", weak, undecided, illogical, passionate, etc. etc. These characteristics, considered "natural" in woman, are in fact qualities that culture has assigned to her, forcing her, through violence, sarcasm, fear, to accommodate.
In the course of a centuries' long inculturation she has been educated to the point where she herself wants to be weak, sensitive, illogical, maternal, etc. etc. By the term "inculturation" we mean that process through which individuals are prevailed upon to learn and to adopt as their own the values of the group to which they belong, adjusting their individual personalities to the models and to the roles laid down by culture, particularly to the difference in the roles of the sexes.
This article looks at some l3th century Italian pedagogical texts on the education of women. It makes clear that the aim of these so-called "Counsels" is to control the female personality. But over and above such counsels and pedagogical tracts inculturation takes place through countless other channels: - nursery rhymes, fables, prayers, the texts of medieval liturgical plays. Girls are influenced culturally not only within the family; beyond the family they have before them always the example of adult behaviour - the behaviour of all men and all women.
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(edited by), El costume de le donne, 1976, Year I, n. 2, pp. 184-201
This anonymous poem, first published in Brescia in 1536, is an example of "Avvertimento di maritaggio", that is to say advice by a mother to her daughter about to get married. It is presented here as a source of further research, as well as of a critical re-reading.
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Notes from a Woman Historian, 1976, Year I,
n. 3, pp. 154-159
In her "Notes from a Woman Historian" Annarita Buttafuoco takes up this theme, and asserts that many disciplines should express themselves on this historical process of the Eros. As far as History is concerned, states Annarita Buttafuoco, it has been the lack of methodology which heretofore has prevented work on this field, so important for the understanding of men and women. The whole history of sentiment has remained unexamined (though in France there are certain interesting studies, for example, on religious sentiment).
Even so, according to Buttafuoco, only through the closest collaboration between the historian and the cultural anthropologist is it possible to study and to understand the interplay, the communication of feelings and sentiments - these escape the traditional historian - and thus to discover the essence of woman through the study of love.
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Eleonora Fonseca Pimentel, 1977, n. 3, pp. 51-92
Eleonora Fonseca Pimentel was the first woman Italian political journalist. She contributed to the 1799 Jacobiti revolution in Naples with her paper the "Monitore Napoletano" which still remains one of the most interesting of the documents from those dramatic days. Historiography has ignored this woman revolutionary, or when it has given her mention has described her as the "virile" comrade of these Neapolitan Jacobins.
The finding of the legal papers on the dissolution of her marriage has given us precious information on her personal life. She was married to a captain in the Bourbon army, and was subject to incredible violence by her gross and uncultured husband who could not tolerate her studying and her political activity. Tragic episodes - at one point he nearly threw her out of the window - punctuated Eleonora's married life, and finally forced her to apply for a separation.
The second part of the article deals with Eleonora's part in the Revolution. Her concern for the people - not shared by the Jacobin - and her burning desire for liberty and for reforms, made of her a revolutionary who was acutely aware of all the economic and spiritual aspects of revolution. Her campaign for a republic based on popular demand remains chief witness to her activity. She campaigned for the use of the neapolitan dialect in place of a "foreign" language such as Tuscan or French. She was persecuted with especial hatred by reaction and, on August 20th 1799, was hanged in the market place in Naples.
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Debate [Thousand faces of Eve], 1978, n. 8, pp. 121-136
"Nuova dwf" has organised a round table with the three realisations of a Television program on the image of woman in the different epochs of history of cinema. This meeting has made clear the enormous difficulties created by an institution as Italian Television that with its bureau critical mechanism and hierarchies prejudices all prefixed aims.
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(edited by), Home based work and gender: fieldwork material, 1979, n. 10-11,
pp. 187-210
An account is given of a research undertaken at the Magistero Faculty in the University of Arezzo, as part of a seminar on "Woman's condition and capitalist society" in the academic years 1976/77 and 1977/78; different departments took part in it, some from "academically" distant disciplines.
Topics focussed in the course of the research are problems of method, the female students' attitude, questioning the lecturer's role, and changes occurred during the research. Following are the (partial) texts of the interviews with home based workers. Materials were gathered by Nicla Boncompagni, Brunella Bertocci, Dea Innocenti, Teresa Tommasi, Daniela Gambini, Loretta Fabbri, Edi Pucci, Daniela Minici.
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On "mothers" and "sisters"… Fragments on women,
feminism and historiography, 1981, n. 15, pp. 89-104
Research by feminist historians has created a mass of information and data on the lives and struggles of women who had previously been ignored by male historians. However, there is a need for deeper reflection on the methods of research and, above all, to define the theoretical field - both scientific and political - of "women's history".
Certain subjects like that of collective historical memory, for example, have not been given careful treatment by feminist historians. Moreover, the research has been done without clarifying the various connotations of words like women and feminism, which are not automatically interchangeable. The article is based primarily on research in social and political history done by feminists in the United States.
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BUTTAFUOCO Annarita - TURNATURI Gabriella, An editorial, or very nearly so,
1981, n. 16, pp. 5-17
This issue of "nuova dwf" opens with an essay on the politics of the Catholic movement in the period which goes from the referendum on divorce in 1974 (when many Catholic organisations voted to keep divorce in Italy, versus the Church indications) and the referendum on abortion, when the same organisations choose to side with the hierarchy positions.
The writers' assumption is that Catholics, as political movement, try to take advantage of the referendum on abortion to organise their ideological reawakening and assume a leading role in society occupying the political spaces left uncovered by the crisis of the left in the last years. Finally, the paper analyses the big differences between feminist understanding and those women who call themselves "Catholic feminists" because of their being active in the Catholic reforms movement.
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Looking for a flat, 1982, n. 19-20, pp. 124-126
A witty and sincere witness of the problems, wishes, changing moods, of a young emancipated and feminist woman, looking for a flat to call her home.
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"Disdain those who laugh". Politics and culture in the periodicals
of the women's rights movement in Italy, 1982, n. 21, pp. 7-34
This article examines the periodicals of the "lay" women's rights
movement (i.e. neither denominational nor linked to political parties) between
the end of the l9th and the beginning of the 20th century.
Particularly, it analyses the attempt of the editors of those magazines to produce a culture which would both emphasise the traditional feminine values and also work out a model of a "new woman", extremely active in carrying out her duties as well as claiming her rights. Love, marriage, and motherhood are the basic categories to be renewed according to the activists of the women's rights movement in the beginning of the 20th century.
However, while there is a strong, almost revolutionary connotation to the first definition of "emancipated" motherhood towards the renewal of the family and the feminine identity, later on, as a general involution marks all the rising movements, the idea of motherhood is burdened by "biological" references which deprive it of its original significance. This article also analyses the commitment of the women's rights activists to the creation of specialised libraries and to the "feminist" schools.
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BUTTAFUOCO Annarita - DE LONGIS Rosanna (edited by), Women's political press
(1861-1924), 1982, n. 21, pp. 73-100
An annotated catalogue of women's periodicals founded between 1861 and 1924, and dealing with political, educational and trade union matters. Professional periodicals targeted at specific groups of women workers are not included, nor are fashion and entertainment periodicals, except when dealing, though occasionally, with political themes.
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The "Unione Femminile" (1901-1905), 1982, n. 21, pp. 101-141
The author outlines the history of the periodical "Unione Femminile" using material from the Majno Archives. Drawing mostly upon the collection of Majno's letters, she retraces the origin and development of the periodical, and the role of its founder Ersilia Majno in envisaging it as a means for the "practical feminism" she advocated.
Buttafuoco analyses the position of "Unione Femminile" on motherhood and suffrage, its relationships with the readers and contributors, as well as with other Italian and foreign periodicals, she also looks at the financial and managerial problems.
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Debate [About us and beyond]…, 1982, n. 22, pp. 147-153
Different sectors of the editorial board exchange
letters in a moment of crisis of the review's project and of its editing group.
Annarita Buttafuoco and Maricla Tagliaferri underline
the need to reflect on the review's format and its meaning in the present situation
of the women's movement, on its fluctuating between being a scientific journal
and a militant magazine, on its scarcely reactive public, on the failed turnover
both of its editors and of its buyers. The project's stalemate and the growing
hardship of the organization burden are at the same time cause and effect of
a break in the relationships between editors which hinders reflection and reduces
everything to a question of personal relations. In front of all this the writers
propose to find other references for the quarterly's future.
Rosanna De Longis, Donata Lodi and Gabriella
Turnaturi declare they cannot and will not continue to be part of the editorial
board, considering the existing contradictions with the quarterly's direction
and property.
Biancamaria Amoretti Scarcia, Tilde Capomazza, Gemma Luzzi, Maria Teresa Morreale, Dora Stiefelmeier point out that "the quarterly's property" is made up of the group of women who founded the review in 1976 pouring on it ideas, work and energy; some years later they have entrusted the new board with the review's heritage, "without expecting profits, without demanding financial control, without intervening in any way on the review's political line". Involved in the editorial board's crisis which threatened the review's continuity, the quarterly's property met the editors and emphasized its will to grant the above mentioned continuity. It also began a series of encounters with women willing to express a new project, collectively reconsidering the review's political function and the production structure necessary to secure its existence.
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The sentiment of politics, 1982, n. 22. Suppl., pp. 49-60
The author opens the section entitled "Thinking over political history". In the first part she illustrates the general and specific reasons for the almost complete absence of a strictly political history directly or indirectly related to the women's movement.
The aim of the author's current research is to verify if concepts such as 'democracy', 'socialism', 'politics' can be thought over and modified, and also if they can be changed when seen through the lens of the women's movement. She is also interested in investigating the socio-political, cultural and general problems women from the past faced in the course of their struggles, the instruments, alliances, and relationships they practised, as well as the conflicts they were able to govern.
In the second part she corroborates her reasoning with the presentation of the research she is carrying out while sorting through the private archives of Ersilia Majno, founder of the Unione Femminile (Feminine Union).
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Debate, 1982, n. 22. Suppl., pp. 91-100
Polda Fortunati, Laura Mariani, Antonella Picchio, Annarita Buttafuoco, Michela De Giorgio take part in the debate on this section.
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For Flo Westoby, 1993, n. 17, pp. 40-41
Memories of an editor of the review's first series who recently died, with a short profile of her life, her interests and her contribution to the review.
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MATTESINI Luana (introduced by BUTTAFUOCO Annarita), Writing about oneself:
a critical overview on women's autobiography, 1993, n. 18-19, pp. 28-47
In this section of the journal feminist scholars of some standing introduce younger scholars whose work they want to be known and appreciated; here Annarita Buttafuoco (historian) introduce Luana Mattesini. A rich and well researched overview of the methodological problems addressed by those scholars who in recent years have tried to valorise - also developing a theoretical stance - the manifold aspects and forms of female representation of the self.
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Reviews for DWF
"Effe", mensile femminista autogestito, 1979
rev. by Annarita Buttafuoco, 1979, n. 10-11, pp. 234
Essere donna in Sicilia di S. Mafai et al., Roma, Editori Riuniti, 1976
rev. by Annarita Buttafuoco, 1976, n. 1, pp. 150-151
JAMES A., Il diario. 1889-1892, a cura di M.A. Saracino, Milano, La Tartaruga,
1985
rev. by Annarita Buttafuoco, 1986, n. 1, pp. 138-139
MONDELLO Elisabetta, La nuova italiana. La donna nella stampa e nella cultura
del Ventennio, Roma, Editori Riuniti, 1987
rev. by Annarita Buttafuoco, 1986, n. 4, pp. 91-93
NAVA P., La fabbrica dell'emancipazione. Operaie della Manifattura Tabacchi
di Modena: storie di vita e di lavoro, Roma, Utopia, 1986
rev. by Annarita Buttafuoco, 1986, n. 2, pp. 142-144
PIERONI BORTOLOTTI F., La donna, la pace, l'Europa. L'Associazione internazionale
delle donne dalle origini alla prima guerra mondiale, Milano, Franco Angeli,
1985
rev. by Annarita Buttafuoco, 1986, n. 3, pp. 121-124
SOLÈ Jacques, L'Amour en Occident à l'epoque moderne, Paris,
Albin Michel, 1976
rev. by Annarita Buttafuoco, Y. I, 1976, n. 4, pp. 169-171
Books reviewed by DWF
BUTTAFUOCO A., Le mariuccine. Storia di un'istituzione laica. L'Asilo Mariuccia,
Milano, Franco Angeli, 1985
rev. by Rina Macrelli, 1986, n. 1, pp. 133-137
BUTTAFUOCO A. - ZANCAN M. (edited by), Svelamento. Sibilla Aleramo: una biografia
intellettuale, Milano, Feltrinelli, 1988
rev. by Orietta Simona Di Bucci and Francesca Romana Koch, 1989, n. 9, pp. 81-83
Translations for DWF
RUBIN Gayle, The Traffic in Women. Notes on the "Political Economy of
Sex"
tran. by Annarita Buttafuoco, 1976, n.1, pp. 23-65
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SCOTT Joan - TILLY Louise, Emancipation or Integration: women's work in Nineteenth
Century Europe
tran. by Annarita Buttafuoco, 1976, Y.I, n. 4, pp. 11-50
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DAVIN Anna, Maternity and imperialism
tran. by Annarita Buttafuoco, 1978, n. 6-7, pp. 5-87
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SCHROM DYE Nancy, Difficult solidarity: feminism and class struggle
in the New York Women's Trade Union League (1903-1914)
tran. by Annarita Buttafuoco, 1979,
n. 10-11, pp. 26-46
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HUMPHRIES Jane, Working class, class struggle and persistence of the family
tran. by Annarita Buttafuoco, 1979,
n. 12-13, pp. 96-121
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ROWBOTHAM Sheila, The Women's Movement and the Construction of Socialism
tran. by Annarita Buttafuoco, 1980, n. 14, pp. 6-74
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FRAISSE Geneviève, The chatterers - Feminism and moralism in France,
1800-1900
tran. by Annarita Buttafuoco and A. de Ferrante, 1982, n. 19-20, pp. 127-147