Articles for DWF
Articles for DWF
Malina, or the "female condition", 1975, Year I, n. 1, pp. 77-89
Malina, a novel by the Austrian authoress Ingeborg Bachmann, who died in Rome in October 1973, expresses the extreme malaise of a woman unable to achieve a satisfying relationship both with the reality surrounding her and with the two men with whom, in different ways, she shares her life. M.T. Morreale's study aims to underline the close connection between the female protagonist of Ingeborg Bachmann's novel and the general condition of isolation in which a woman, however emancipated and free she may be, finds herself forced to live today.
Malina, an autobiographical novel, accurate and
telling in form and expression, sets up a close link between its central character
and the authoress. The latter, whose life was that of an intellectual, a writer
and at once a woman, a life both intense and full of suffering, gives her novel
an existential dimension involving all women aware of the "female condition"
as a discriminating element, as well as those who are gradually becoming aware
of it. And since the woman is not an entity detached from the species, the theme
of I. Bachmann's novel concerns all humanity.
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The Findings of a German feminist of the last Century on Nietzsche and Woman,
1976, Year I, n. 3, pp. 99-117
The author, in her short introduction to the writings of Hedwig Dohm on "Nietzsche and Woman", emphasises that even the most recent Nietzche studies have thrown but little light on the great German philosopher's relationships with the women with whom he came into contact: his mother, his sister, his friends (Lou Andreas Salome, Malvida von Meyseburg). But the position he takes up in the course of his writings, when he expresses judgements on the essence of woman, is even more disconcerting. He disapproves of any form of culture or of emancipation for woman, stating categorically that woman should remain the exclusive property of man, and any refinement she undergoes is solely to appease the male and the better to beget children.
German culture of that time (and not only German culture) nurtured plenty of similar viewpoints, but what is striking is that Nietzsche, the great innovator in science and in morality, the declared enemy of any philistinisrn, on the woman question did not hesitate to line up beside the most reactionary and conservative, never for one moment allowing himself to be touched by the critical doubts, the pleas for change and for clarification from voices such as those of John Stuart Mill, Hedwig Dohm and the early German feminists. Hedwig Dohm's article, which appeared first in the Berlin journal "Die Zukunft" in 1898, follows in translation.
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Debate [Who, for whom, how. Scientific research carried out by women], 1976,
n. 1, pp. 3-22
The subject under discussion was scientific research as carried out by women. The participants were the Editorial board of "nuova dwf", Annarita Buttafuoco, Tilde Capomazza, Maria Teresa Morreale, Maria Grazia Paolini, Biancamaria Scarcia, Dora Stiefelmeier, Flo Westoby, and Luciana Di Lello, an Italian feminist engaged in research, was also present.
Leaving aside epistemological consideration, discussion concentrated on the political importance of scientific work - differences arose immediately on the definition of "scientific" - carried out by women; the fact that they are a socially oppressed group working within a set of disciplines almost exclusively elaborated by men, with all the distortions which this involves; on the consequent need to critically examine and often call into question not only the methodologies but even the basic concepts. Underlying the various disciplines. As the participants are all working in the social sciences, the special problems of women working in the "hard" sciences were not discussed.
There was special emphasis on the categorical necessity for a continuing check on sociological researches on women or on the supposed condition of women, both on the aims and on the subjects of these researches. Each speaker described her own special work problems, and spoke of her personal experiences, either in the university or in her field of research. The second part of the discussion was given over to the aims and problems of the journal, to political strategy, to the type of readership, to the appropriate forms and language.
Tilde Capomazza, communications expert, summed up, indicating the links between the journal and the feminist movement, and the journal and all those women who, aware of their oppression, are ready to unite and to struggle.
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Notes on Women's Education in the two Germanies, 1977, n. 2, pp. 80-87
In spite of bourgeois feminist struggles, notably by Louise Otto, to eliminate discrimination against girls and women, the remnants of medieval thinking still persist in women's education in Germany. In the Federal Republic of Germany equality of girls and boys, guaranteed under the law, is not yet a reality. The situation in the German Democratic Republic, thanks to different social and political premises, seems at first sight to have been revolutionised.
According to official statistics women are to be found in all sectors of the educational system, and the lower proportion of women - either as students or professors - in the universities, is diminishing. Our reservations have a different source. Why is it that, after more than thirty years of socialism, when the politicians speak of women's political contributions, they mention only their minor battles in everyday life…?
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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.