La Mamma
Interrogating a National Stereotype
Editors: Morris, Penelope, Willson, Perry (Eds.)
Free Preview- - Examines Italian motherhood and its stereotypes, absences, and different understandings
- - Looks at how the idea of motherhood has shaped Italian gender constructs and stereotypes
- - Brings together specialists from a number of disciplines to investigate motherhood as a historical reality and a product of the imagination in Italy
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- About this book
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The idea of the “mamma italiana” is one of the most widespread and recognizable stereotypes in perceptions of Italian national character both within and beyond Italy. This figure makes frequent appearances in jokes and other forms of popular culture, but it has also been seen as shaping the lived experience of modern-day Italians of both sexes, as well as influencing perceptions of Italy in the wider world. This interdisciplinary collection examines the invented tradition of mammismo but also contextualizes it by discussing other, often contrasting, ways in which the role of mothers, and the mother-son relationship, have been understood and represented in culture and society over the last century and a half, both in Italy and in its diaspora.
- About the authors
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Penelope Morris is Senior Lecturer in Italian in the School of Modern Languages and Cultures at the University of Glasgow, Scotland, UK. Her previous publications include Giovanna Zangrandi: una vita in romanzo (2001); (ed.) Women in Italy 1945-1960 (Palgrave, 2006) and, with Francesco Ricatti and Mark Seymour, (co-ed.) Politica ed emozioni nella storia d’Italia dal 1848 ad oggi (2012).
Perry Willson is Professor of Modern European History at the University of Dundee, Scotland, UK. Her previous publications include Women in Twentieth-Century Italy (Palgrave, 2010); Peasant Women and Politics in Fascist Italy: the Massaie Rurali (2002) and The Clockwork Factory: Women and Work in Fascist Italy (1993).
- Reviews
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“The book is essential reading for anyone interested in modern Italy, and in motherhood or gender more broadly; it complements recent work on the representation of mothers and motherhood in Italian culture by providing a very wide-ranging and thorough analysis and critique of the historical and cultural dynamics that underpin Italy’s postwar preoccupations with gender and family.” (Danielle Hipkins, Italian American Review, Vol. 10 (2), 2020)
- Table of contents (9 chapters)
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La Mamma: Italian Mothers Past and Present
Pages 1-27
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Mammismo/Momism: On the History and Uses of a Stereotype, c.1940s to the Present
Pages 29-50
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Mothers, Workers, Citizens: Teresa Noce and the Parliamentary Politics of Motherhood
Pages 51-76
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Problems and Prescriptions: Motherhood and Mammismo in Postwar Italian Advice Columns and Fiction
Pages 77-104
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Conceptualizing the Maternal: Representations, Reflections and Refractions in Women’s Literary Writings
Pages 105-130
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Table of contents (9 chapters)
Bibliographic Information
- Bibliographic Information
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- Book Title
- La Mamma
- Book Subtitle
- Interrogating a National Stereotype
- Editors
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- Penelope Morris
- Perry Willson
- Series Title
- Italian and Italian American Studies
- Copyright
- 2018
- Publisher
- Palgrave Macmillan US
- Copyright Holder
- The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s)
- eBook ISBN
- 978-1-137-54256-4
- DOI
- 10.1057/978-1-137-54256-4
- Hardcover ISBN
- 978-1-137-55986-9
- Series ISSN
- 2635-2931
- Edition Number
- 1
- Number of Pages
- XIII, 248
- Number of Illustrations
- 1 b/w illustrations
- Topics
