The Silent Duchess

Set in the mid-18th century, this novel tells of the noble Ucria family, seen through the eyes of the deaf-mute Duchess Marianna. Married at 13 to her uncle, Marianna searches for fulfilment in a society in which women face either endless childbearing or a life of renunciation within a convent.

The silent Duchess

Maraini,Dacia

Flamingo

Although many writers blend autobiography and fiction, few have been so forthright in admitting it as Gustave Flaubert. In reference to his legendary novel and protagonist, he wrote: "Madame Bovary, c'est moi." Madame Bovary has become an icon for casual readers and feminists alike, but, as Dacia Maraini argues, she is one of the most problematic, though fascinating, female protagonists in modern literature. In this lively, learned, and very personal study, Maraini explores the profound and contradictory relationship between the writer Flaubert and the character his readers have grown to love. Maraini argues that in their desire to claim Emma Bovary as a standard-bearer of revolt, women have often overlooked the bitter, pitiless way in which Flaubert evokes Emma's insignificance and vulgarity. Searching for Emma guides the reader through Flaubert's novel and many of his letters, seeking out the sources of his obsessive cruelty toward Emma. Maraini relates Flaubert's contempt for Emma to his relationship with his mistress, Louise Colet, to his general terror of women, and to his own self-loathing. It was entirely in spite of himself, Maraini writes, that Flaubert created the female Don Quixote so admired for her restlessness and determination. Searching for Emma offers a novelist's insight into the complex relationship between author and character, and into the deepest motivations of fiction.

Searching for Emma: Gustave Flaubert and Madame Bovary

Literature & Fiction

History & Criticism

University of Chicago Press

Palermo, Sicily. In the Piazza Marina a large crowd has gathered to witness the public hanging of a young brigand. Duke Signoretto Ucria di Fontanasalsa, leader of the Noble Fathers of the Inquisition, is in attendance, and with him is his deaf-mute daughter Marianna, who is seven years old. The child watches as the rope is slipped round the prisoner's neck; there is a roll of drums and the hangman kicks away the box on which the boy is standing; the body drops and starts to rotate. The execution over, the Duke turns to his daughter: surely such a sight will force her to speak? But she remains silent and trembling, clinging to the folds of her father's robes.Set in the mid-eighteenth century, Dacia Maraini's unforgettable novel tells the story of three generations of the Ucria family, seen through the watchful eyes of the young Duchess Marianna. Married at thirteen to her own uncle, set apart from others by her handicap, she searches for fulfilment in a society in which women face either marriage and endless childbearing, or a life of renunciation within the walls of a convent.

Literary

Peter Owen Ltd

Creating shockwaves when first published in Italy in the 1980s, this is a historical novel based on a true account of a grisly murder in turn-of-the-century Verona. In her relentless narrative based on interviews and contemporary accounts, Maraini has brought a long-submerged story of injustice and oppression to light. The fact that Isolina became pregnant by her lieutenant lover and refused to have an abortion was published in newspapers after the murder. Also known, but not reported, was the suspicion that she was probably murdered by soldiers who, protecting their comrade's reputation, tried to abort the pregnancy. The crime could easily have been solved, but evidence was destroyed by the state in efforts to defend the image of the military. Dacia Maraini is one of the best known writers in Italy. Her previous prize-winning novel, The Silent Duchess, sold 200,000 copies in Italy and was on the bestseller list for seventy weeks.

Isolina

In Italy, as in most Western cultures, the 1960s was a dynamic and turbulent decade of social change. Dacia Maraini, in this short story collection, explores the vexing, tragic, and often humorous experiences of women living in modern urban Italy.   With a style as lean as Samuel Beckett’s, and a love of the absurd that rivals Eugène Ionesco, Maraini’s stories are both poignant and wickedly funny. The writer’s ironic lens zooms in to examining sexual relations, working conditions, women’s issues, and family dynamics, illuminating the lives of an entire generation. With classic existential angst, Maraini’s characters are often profoundly dissatisfied with their situations, but also ill-equipped to initiate any real change. This feminist version of the absurd is deliciously wry and terrible. The stories have a real bite.   Originally published as Mio marito in 1968, this is the first English translation of My Husband.

My Husband

Wilfrid Laurier University Press

Letters to Marina

Crossing Pr

Crossing Press

Woman at War

Lighthouse Books

Contemporary

Camden Press

Staging Violence Against Women and Girls brings together three contemporary plays that denounce gendered violence, along with interviews with their creators and the practitioners who have staged them in different national contexts.Little Stitches (London, 2014): consisting of four short pieces by Isley Lynn, Raúl Quirós Molina, Bahar Brunton and Karis E. Halsall, this play presents Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C) from the points of view of by-standers, anti-FGM/C activists, health professionals, women who perpetuatethe practice and, finally, survivors.'Kubra' (Sydney, 2016): written by Dacia Maraini, this short play features a young woman who was subjected to FGM/C as a child and now, years later, brings her case to court in a search for justice. A Trial for Rape (Rome, 2018): adapted for theatre by Renato Chiocca from the international award-winning 1979 documentary of the same name, this play reveals how judicial procedures and attitudes toward sexual violence tend to turn rape survivors from accusers into accused.In their interviews, the writers, directors and producers discuss their conception and production of the works collected in Staging Violence Against Women and Girls. The plays and their creators highlight the urgency of raising awareness of these forms of violence and giving voice to survivors.

Staging Violence Against Women and Girls: Plays and Interviews (Methuen Drama Play Collections, 25)

Humor & Entertainment

Lynn, Isley

Molina, Raúl Quirós

Brunton, Bahar

Halsall, Karis E.

Chiocca, Renato

Movies

Methuen Drama

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