Articles for DWF
Reviews for DWF
Articles for DWF
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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Woman in the Work of Caravaggio and his Followers, 1976, Year I, n. 2, pp.
49-77
The writer shows, through certain of Caravaggio's paintings, how the concept of woman changed, in certain sectors of society, in the early 1600's. Looking at these changes, we must take into account the religious and ethical stimuli to which the painter was subject and which he also helped to shape.
For example, in some of his religious paintings, Caravaggio uses a new iconography, evidence of that neo-evangelism which gives birth to a new approach to mankind - and therefore to womankind - whatever the social origin or living conditions. The ideal of renewal expressed by Caravaggio is less evident in his followers, whose work, naturalistic in intent, nevertheless reflects the changing ideals of a society in transformation.
Researching the work of a woman painter from the same circle, Artemisia Gentileschi, the writer has tried to bring her into focus. Gentileschi was complicate, both because of her way of life and because of her attempts to express herfself. She struggled to convey the understanding she had painfully reached, not without compromise, in her attempts to reconcile her aspirations for freedom to assert and to express herself, with the limitations of being a woman, of being alone, and of being the bearer of an artistic ideal which was already on the wane.
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Methodological Notes, 1976, Year I, n. 4, pp. 158-168
M.G. Paolini stresses the fundamental importance of Nochlin's contribution in regard to its theoretical and practical aspects, as well as for the historical value of its treatment of the period and situations under consideration.
On the other hand, Paolini is in agreement with Hess - and here their position can he understood as an extension of the proposition advanced by Nochlin - that in the case of other historical periods, such as the Middle Ages, or of other social structures wherein the role of the woman is different and the artist somewhat less privileged as an individual, the results of woman's artistic productivity have been and could have been different. A wide field of research thus remains unexplored, offering fascinating and fruitful opportunities for the research historian.
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Reviews for DWF
Art and Sexual Politics (Why have there been no great women artists?),
Edited by Thomas B. Hesse and Elizabeth C. Baker, New York, Collier Books, 1973,
rev. by Maria Grazia Paolini, Y. I, 1976, n. 3, pp. 176-178
EMMY Elsa, L'arte cambia sesso, Catania, Tringale, 1975
rev. by Maria Grazia Paolini, Y. I, 1976, n. 3, pp. 178-179