La Mamma: Interrogating a National Stereotype
In: Italian and Italian American Studies
Intro -- Preface -- Contents -- Notes on Contributors -- Chapter 1: La Mamma: Italian Mothers Past and Present -- Mammismo -- Stereotypes -- The "Birth of Mammismo" -- Mammismo Abroad -- Beyond the Stereotype -- The Stereotype Today -- Bibliography -- Chapter 2: Mammismo/Momism: On the History and Uses of a Stereotype, c.1940s to the Present -- Blaming Women: Mothers as Scapegoats During and After the Second World War -- "Great Mothers" and "Civiltà Materna": Italian Society in the Light of (Pop-) Psychology -- The Uses of a Stereotype: Mammismo at the Movies and in Political Discourse -- Conclusions -- Bibliography -- Archival Documents -- Published Sources -- Chapter 3: Mothers, Workers, Citizens: Teresa Noce and the Parliamentary Politics of Motherhood -- Women's Citizenship and Postwar Projects of Reconstruction -- The Resistance as "Maternage di Massa": How Women Became Key to Democratization and Defascistization -- Motherhood as a Balm for Catholic and Cold War Anxieties -- The Right to Work and Mothering as Social Labour -- The Proposal in Debate and Legislation -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- Chapter 4: Problems and Prescriptions: Motherhood and Mammismo in Postwar Italian Advice Columns and Fiction -- Magazines and Advice Columns in Postwar Italy -- Signora Quickly and Donna Letizia in Grazia -- Padre Atanasio in Famiglia cristiana -- Renata Viganò and Giuliana dal Pozzo in Noi donne -- Alba de Céspedes and "Dalla parte di lei" in Epoca -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- Chapter 5: Conceptualizing the Maternal: Representations, Reflections and Refractions in Women's Literary Writings -- Introductory Reflections -- The Challenge of Sibilla Aleramo -- Before the 1970s: Vivanti, Deledda, Banti, Ginzburg -- The 1970s to the 1990s: Ginzburg, Fallaci, Ravera, Maraini -- Concluding Considerations -- Bibliography