Thesis title: Leggere la storia delle donne attraverso il romanzo. L’adolescenza femminile nelle scrittrici italiane del Novecento e degli anni Duemila.
This thesis focuses on the analysis of the literary representation of female adolescence in the selected Italian novels written by female authors (twentieth and twenty-first century). These texts were considered crucial for analysing this growth phase, due to the relevance in terms of gender model definition and confront of ideals, imaginaries and specific constructs (Flores 1988). The project falls within the framework of gender-focused critical literature (Zancan 1998, Crispino 2015, Ronchetti e Sapegno 2007, Sapegno et al. 2015, Storini 2021, Brogi 2022) that highlights female writers’ specificities as well as the marginal attention that they still receive at different levels, namely teaching and research, market visibility, and the broader cultural debate.
For the purposes of this research, a corpus of novels from the twentieth century and early twenty-first century was chosen for their effectiveness, depth and originality in their representation of female adolescence. The research was based both on the analysis of individual novels, examined in their thematic richness, and of specific themes, studied diachronically, through the texts of different authors (i.e. writing aspirations, changes linked to the onset of the menarche). This led the following elements to the emergence: continuity (e.g. the problematic relationship with the mother, the discomfort deriving from changes in the body) and innovation (e.g. the role of friendship - especially among females -, the growing attention to the breakdown identity associated with the appearance of the menarche).
The study’s final goal was to assess the identified novels in the context of high school education. To this end, the theoretical analyses were complemented by parallel field research, fomalised as PCTO (Percorso per le compotenze trasversali e l’orientamento - Educational pathway for transversal competences and career guidance), directed towards high school students with the aim to determine their level of familiarity with the works of Italian female authors, as well as the possibility of identity recognition with female characters. On the one hand, this activity confirmed that female writers are not studied nor read a lot. On the other it confirmed the extent to which they are able to spark interest among adolescents. The pathwayy has, therefore, proven the potential of these novels in increasing students’ critical sense and activating their stereotypes perceptions, reflections on personal experiences and exchanges among peers.