Articles for DWF
Reviews for DWF
Articles for DWF
Je ne regrette rien, 1986, n. 1, pp. 22-28
A history of italian feminist movement outlined by a participant through the analysis of some meaningful words (movimento, organizzazione, spontaneismo, affidamento). The author describes the passages, the significant stages, the conditions which have rendered these words authoritative, thus re-tracing a history of political relationships between/among women in the feminist movement.
She then focuses on the word affidamento chronologically the last of these authoritative words, using as a criterion of analysis "I like it, I like it not": Affidamento - meaning a particular relationship between two women, one being "more" than the other, who therefore entrusts herself to her - was first put forward as a political practice in 1983 in the writing Più donne che uomini by a group of the Libreria delle Donne in Milan.
The author polemically singles out some features of this practice: the separation between individual subject and collective subject; the lack of an historical perspective placing the proposal in the context of the feminist movement; the rigidity and hierarchy in the relationship between women which the proposal entails. On the contrary she appreciates the forcefulness and directness of the language, and the "rich" image of womanness offered. The interest aroused in Italy by the proposal is also underlined.
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Silence is a loss, 1986, n. 4, pp. 49-53
The author investigates the concept of belonging - "being a part of" - in relation to the lesbian experience. The process of acquisition of knowledge has its first founding instance in the space of desire built by the relationship between two female subjects: "I belong to" (I am a part of), where belonging to another woman is the measure of one's self-knowledge.
Fearing the loss of their defences, and the loss of their link with the women's movement at large - and therefore with their feeling of belonging to (being a part of) the collective subject woman - Italian lesbian women have not developed a political word, which could signify and communicate that experience in order to reach beyond the dimension of intimacy.
The political act of stating one's loyalties, saying where one belongs - particularly concerning the prevailing signs which determine one's relationship with oneself and with the-other-from-oneself - is the act that marks the passage from belonging to another woman to belonging to oneself. From intimacy to women's culture.
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On sex, and other alien every day experiences, 1991, n. 13-14, pp. 63-72
The paper inquires into the subterranean impulse to self-censorship which seems to take women writers of science fiction (even those who are politically engaged) when they deal with sexual transgression, be it or be it not related to institutional matters.
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Ways of reading: translations into Italian, 1991, n. 13-14, pp. 97-107
A possible key to reading science fiction production suggested to the Italian female public through the presentation - and a times, a short analysis - of the works issued in Italy and translated.
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Taken as a whole and in details, 1991, n. 15, pp. 26-29
The lesbian women who have operated and still operate inside women's movement seem to have kept the capability of a bifocal sight. A sight able to cacht the wholeness of a female thought intended to be dominant in the world, and the material detail of the relations and bonds representing the molecular structure of the political genre.
A capability highly political that can be left unused - as Simonetta Spinelli asserts - until lesbian women fail to "make clear, beyond reticence and mimetism - through which they deny women's freedom - what change of practice and what necessity are involved by the investment of their lives towards a woman. What female freedom dimension it creates, what it reveals and, finally, what authoritativeness it establishes".
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Let me give you an example, 1993, n. 17, pp. 18-21
The author uses two (real) characters to set forth her thesis as though telling a story: the story of a teacher and of her relationship with her students - a girl, in particular.
There is, Spinelli says, a lack of female authority i.e. the authority of a collective subject which would give us back "the awareness of a link between the materiality of my life and of her (the student's) life within a same area of meaning". We have lost the capacity to give examples and the will to listen to one another. "But if listening is not a need, creating a collective authority becomes of little importance".
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(edited by) GENTILI Elena, A change of meaning. Nicole Brossard's "La
lettre aérienne", 1993, n. 20, pp. 55-68
A member of DWF's editorial board, Elena Gentili died a few months ago; publishing the text of a talk she gave in 1991 (within a series of meetings organised by the Centro "Alma Sabatini") is a way of remembering her, sharing with our readers the memory of her intelligence and sensitivity.
"Any woman knows how to read Brossard", said Gentili, "provided that she remembers that she is a woman"; for the change and dislocation of meaning, which is at the core of Brossard's writing, is a collective invention of women who have moved away from a reality which deprived them of meaning. Gentili's analysis of Brossard's work takes into consideration the very conception of writing and literature which it entails, also addressing Brossard's idea of "lesbian genius".
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I've dissected Queen Christina, 1998, n. 37-38, pp. 31-45
The author looks at her experience of taking part - as a personally involved spectator - in "Immaginaria", the lesbian film festival organised by the lesbian cultural association "Visibilia". The festival, which in 1997 was granted an award by the Regione Emilia-Romagna for its high cultural value, collects and presents lesbian films form all over the world, especially those not available through commercial channels.
The films shown are by professional directors but also by amateurs, both single women and groups, and deal with the stories, problems, sexuality, itineraries, fantasies, of a lesbian community which by representing itself also constructs itself.
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Reviews for DWF
DE LEO Mimma - TARRICONE F., Le donne in Italia. Diritti civili e politici,
Napoli, Liguori, 1992
rev. by Simonetta Spinelli, 1992, n. 16, p. 56
DE LAURETIS Teresa, The practice of love. Lesbian sexuality and perverse
desire, Indiana University Press, 1994
rev. by Simonetta Spinelli, 1994, n. 24, pp. 130-131
Questo terzo sesso che non è un sesso, fumetti by Maureen, "Squaderno",
1995, n. 3 (gennaio)
rev. by Simonetta Spinelli, 1995, n. 25, pp. 119-120
TATAFIORE Roberta, Sesso al lavoro, Milano, il Saggiatore, 1994
rev. by Simonetta Spinelli, 1995, n. 26-27, pp. 108-110
HARAWAY Donna J., Manifesto Cyborg. Donne, tecnologie e biopolitiche del corpo,
Milano, Feltrinelli, 1995
rev. by Simonetta Spinelli, 1995, n. 28, pp. 86-88
DE LEO Mimma - TARRICONE F., Le donne in Italia. Educazione/Istruzione,
Napoli, Liguori, 1995
rev. by Simonetta Spinelli, 1995, n. 28, pp. 88-89
DE LAURETIS Teresa, Sui generis. Scritti di teoria femminista, Milano, Feltrinelli,
1996
rev. by Simonetta Spinelli, 1996, n. 29, pp. 88-91
ROSTI Franca, Tra virgolette. Dizionario di citazioni, Bologna, Zanichelli,
1995
rev. by Simonetta Spinelli, 1996, n. 29, pp. 103-104
ADDIS SABA Marina - DE LEO Mimma - TARRICONE Fiorenza (edited by), Alle origini
della Repubblica. Donne e Costituente, Roma, Commissione Nazionale per la
parità e le pari opportunità tra uomo e donna, 1996
rev. by Simonetta Spinelli, 1996, n. 32, p. 106
Cassandra non abita più qui. Maria Nadotti intervista Robin Morgan,
Milano, La Tartaruga, 1996
rev. by Simonetta Spinelli, 1996, n. 32, pp. 106-108
LUPO Paola, Lo specchio incrinato. Storia e immagine dell'omosessualità
femminile, Venezia, Marsilio, 1998
rev. by Simonetta Spinelli, 1998, n. 39-40, pp. 150-152
Translations for DWF
MATHIEU Nicole-Claude, Epistemological criticism of sexual problems in the
ethno-anthropological discourse
tran. by Simonetta Spinelli, 1989, n. 10-11, pp. 9-54
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AIT SABBAH Fatma, Female sex between order and subversion in the Muslim male
subconscious
tran. by Simonetta Spinelli, 1989, n. 10-11, pp. 137-144