In nineteenth-century Italy, a womans place was considered to be in the domestic sphere, devoted to family life. But during the Risorgimento and the years following Unification, economic, political and social changes enabled women progressively to engage in pursuits that had previously been the exclusive domain of men. This book traces some of the steps of this shift in cultural perception. Covering the period from the Unification of Italy in 1861 to the First World War, the volume brings together new perspectives on women, culture and gender in ten original interdisciplinary chapters that explore a variety of subjects, including motherhood and spinsterhood, womens relationship with the Italian language, emigration and brigantaggio, patriotism and travel writing, acting and theatre management, film-making, and political ideas and female solidarity.

Contents: Ursula Fanning: Maternal Prescriptions and Descriptions in Post-Unification Italy – Helena Sanson: ‘La madre educatrice’ in the Family and in Society in Post-Unification Italy: The Question of Language – Lucy Hosker: The Spinster in the Works of Neera and Matilde Serao: Other or Mother? – Anna Laura Lepschy: Carolina Invernizio and Maria Messina: The Drama of Italian Emigration to America – Marjan Schwegman: Horrific Heroines: Female Brigandage, Honour and Violence in Post-Unification Italy, 1860-1870 – Sharon Wood: Murder in the Harem: Cristina di Belgiojoso – Julie Dashwood: The Actress-Manager in Nineteenth-Century Italy: Adelaide Ristori – Monica Dall’Asta: Women Film Pioneers in Early Twentieth-Century Italy – Katharine Mitchell: ‘Sorelle in arte (e politica)’: The ‘Woman Question’ and Female Solidarity at the – Ann Hallamore Caesar: Writing by Women in Post-Unification Literary Culture: The Case for De-segregation.