Editors:
- 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
Part of the book series: Italian and Italian American Studies (IIAS)
Buy it now
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Other ways to access
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check for access.
Table of contents (9 chapters)
-
Front Matter
-
Back Matter
About this book
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.
Reviews
“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)
Editors and Affiliations
-
School of Modern Languages and Cultures, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom
Penelope Morris
-
School of Humanities - History, University of Dundee, Dundee, United Kingdom
Perry Willson
About the editors
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).
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: La Mamma
Book Subtitle: Interrogating a National Stereotype
Editors: Penelope Morris, Perry Willson
Series Title: Italian and Italian American Studies
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-54256-4
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan New York
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media Studies, Literature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-137-55986-9Published: 08 June 2018
eBook ISBN: 978-1-137-54256-4Published: 07 June 2018
Series ISSN: 2635-2931
Series E-ISSN: 2635-294X
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XIII, 248
Number of Illustrations: 1 b/w illustrations
Topics: European Literature, Film History, Twentieth-Century Literature, Gender Studies, Literary Theory, Cultural Theory