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Maraini uses language and stylistics, rather than description, to
define her three women protagonists. Lori, the youngest of the
three women, uses the impetuous, spontaneous language of youth,
late adolescence. Lori's mother, Maria uses the protracted language
of a romantic, a learned researcher, and most significantly a
translator who chooses words with intention in an attempt to bridge
cultures, experiences and, in this case, generations. The
grandmother Gesuina, a former stage actress, has a voice that is
brutally honest, provocative, escapist. All three voices reflect
the essence of the characters: Lori, the reckless teenager who
flies off on her moped, her life's speed represented by her diary
without punctuation; Maria, the pensive translator whose detailed
observations are so concentrated on the word that she does not see
the circumstances that are unfolding around her; Gesuina, the
erstwhile stage actress, who muses aloud and audio-records hoping
for an audience to receive her recitation.  Â
This collection brings together three international and
contemporary plays that each denounce violence against women,
alongside interviews with the creators and practitioners who
brought them to life. With interviews with writers, directors and
producers, who discuss the conception and staging of their plays,
their hope is to de-glamourize the staging of violence, to give
voice to the survivors of gendered violence, and to create
awareness and empathy within the audiences. Little Stitches
(London, 2014): four short pieces by Isley Lynn, Raul Quiros Molina
, Bahar Brunton and Karis E. Halsall on the issue of Female Genital
Mutilation as seen from the point of view of by-standers, health
professionals, women who support the practice and, finally,
survivors. 'Kubra' (Sydney, 2016) by Dacia Maraini, features a
young female protagonist who was subjected to FGM/C as a child, and
now brings her case to court. Rape Trial (Rome, 2018), adapted for
theatre by Renato Chiocca from the international award-winning
documentary of the same title made for Italian state television in
1979, shows how attitudes toward sexual violence, and judicial
procedures, tend to turn rape survivors from accusers into accused,
in court and in everyday discourse.
Winner of the Premio Campiello (Italy's equivalent of the National
Book Award), short-listed for the Independent Foreign Fiction Award
upon its first English-language publication in the U.K., and
published to critical acclaim in fourteen languages, this
mesmerizing historical novel by one of Italy's premier women
writers is available in the United States for the first time. Set
in Sicily in the early eighteenth century, The Silent Duchess is
the story of Marianna Ucra, the daughter of an aristocratic family
and the victim of a mysterious childhood trauma that has left her
deaf and mute, trapped in a world of silence. Set apart from the
world by her disability, Marianna searches for knowledge and
fulfillment in a society where women face either forced marriages
and endless childbearing or a life of renunciation within the walls
of a convent. When she is just thirteen years old, Marianna is
forced to marry her own aging uncle. Her status and wealth as a
duchess cannot protect her from many of the horrors of that time:
she witnesses her mother's decline due to her addiction to opium
and snuff and her father's cruelly misguided religious piety as he
participates in the hanging of a young boy. She watches helplessly
as her four-year-old son dies of smallpox and her youngest daughter
is married off at the age of twelve. It is not until the death of
her uncle-husband that Marianna at last gains freedom from her life
of subservience: she learns to manage her estates and to love a man
as she had never loved her husband, and she also learns of the
unspeakable events that led to her lifelong silence. In luminous
language that conveys both the keen visual sight and the deep human
insightpossessed by her remarkable main character, Dacia Maraini
captures the splendor and the corruption of Marianna's world and
the strength of her spirit. The Silent Duchess is the timeless
story of one woman's struggle to find her own voice after years of
silence. The publication in America of The Silent Duchess is cause
for rejoicing.-Publishers Weeklya carefully paced story of
intellectual and moral growth.-KirkusMaraini's writing is elegant,
and her graphic descriptions of the luxurious life of the
aristocracy in sharp contrast to the squalor of the majority living
in poverty are quite realistic. . . . Recommended. . . wherever
foreign authors are popular.- Library JournalSuggested for course
use in: FictionComparative literatureItalian literatureOne of
Italy's foremost women writers, Dacia Maraini is the winner of the
international Prix Formentor and the Premio Campiello, one of
Italy's highest literary honors. She is the author of more than
fifty books, including novels, plays, collections of poetry, and
critical essays.
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Plays by Mediterranean Women (Paperback)
Cheryl Robson; Edited by Marion Baraitser; Edited by (consulting) Susan Croft; Nawal El-Saadawi, Miriam Kainy, …
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R312
Discovery Miles 3 120
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Ships in 12 - 17 working days
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The Plays Libration by Lluisa Cunill (Spain): A mysterious, intense
and comic two-hander about two women who meet in a city park at
night. The End Of The Dream Season by Miriam Kainy (Israel): A
woman doctor outwits her friends and relations to retain her
inheritance. Harsh Angel by Maria Avraamidou (Cyprus): A gentle
Chekhovian tale of a family torn by the partition of their native
land. Mephisto adapted from the novel by Klaus Mann/ Ariane
Mnouchkine (France/Germany): The story of a German actor who sells
his soul to Nazi ideology. Also a feature film.
This collection brings together three international and
contemporary plays that each denounce violence against women,
alongside interviews with the creators and practitioners who
brought them to life. With interviews with writers, directors and
producers, who discuss the conception and staging of their plays,
their hope is to de-glamourize the staging of violence, to give
voice to the survivors of gendered violence, and to create
awareness and empathy within the audiences. Little Stitches
(London, 2014): four short pieces by Isley Lynn, Raul Quiros Molina
, Bahar Brunton and Karis E. Halsall on the issue of Female Genital
Mutilation as seen from the point of view of by-standers, health
professionals, women who support the practice and, finally,
survivors. 'Kubra' (Sydney, 2016) by Dacia Maraini, features a
young female protagonist who was subjected to FGM/C as a child, and
now brings her case to court. Rape Trial (Rome, 2018), adapted for
theatre by Renato Chiocca from the international award-winning
documentary of the same title made for Italian state television in
1979, shows how attitudes toward sexual violence, and judicial
procedures, tend to turn rape survivors from accusers into accused,
in court and in everyday discourse.
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Woman at War (Hardcover)
Dacia Maraini; Translated by Mara Benetti, Elspeth Spottiswood
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R849
Discovery Miles 8 490
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Ships in 10 - 15 working days
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WOMAN AT WAR is the diary of a woman's growing self-awareness.
Beginning as a passively absent narrator, Vannina encounters a
fascinating array of characters during the holiday she takes on an
island in the Bay of Naples with her husband, Giacinto. When he
returns to work in a garage in Rome, Vannina travels to Naples with
Suna, a friend she has made on vacation. This startling character
opens Vannina to the possibility of finding love through other
women and helps her reject the role of serving coffee to the men
who would change the world through violence. Back in Rome, Vannina
rejects her former life and moves toward complete, if difficult,
independence. Maraini's writing is superb. Its warm and sensual
style gives life to details: the food of the Mediterranean, the
smell of its herbs, the acts of making coffee and making love, the
step-by-step journey of an individual to self-awareness,
self-reliance and independence. Everything is vivid and vibrant.
Maraini's women grow in strength beyond the clamor of political
slogans. The values of understanding, intuition and compassion
effect real change that transcends the wearisome struggle between
the chauvinisms of the political Right and the political
correctness of the Left. A milestone in Italian literature.
Dacia Maraini is today's most prominent Italian writer. She's won,
among others, both Campiello and Strega prizes, which are the most
prestigious Italian literature awards. Her books have been
translated into 22 languages and some of her bestsellers - such as
Storia di Piera [Piera's Story], L'eta del malessere [The Age of
Malaise], La lunga vita di Marianna Ucria [The Silent Duchess],
Voci [Voices], and Memorie di una ladra [Memories of a Thief] -
were turned into successful movies. Writing like Breathing is a
unique collection comprising some of her most important works, the
majority of which have never been translated into English. The
series is divided into four major volumes that are meant to give a
full picture of Maraini's production from 1962 to the present: I.
Autobiography, novels, short stories and poems; II. Plays; III.
Articles; IV. Essays, talks and interviews. Writing like Breathing
shows how the finest Italian woman writer alive today has embraced
and fought for a vast number of issues: women's rights, abuse of
women and children, emigration, discrimination, politics, the
Holocaust, among many others. Moreover, this collection of
Maraini's autobiographies, novels, short stories, and poems,
emphasises the author's long relationship with Japan and the United
States, countries to which she has devoted several books and
articles, both autobiographical and fictional. Some unpublished
manuscripts enrich this unique first volume: two short stories ("A
Christmas in the Snow Globe" and "Aylan") and three poems ("At
Night", "Rome", "Like Sea Bass Underwater"). The other volumes
contain unpublished plays ("Diotima and Socrates," "My Name is
Antonino Calderone," "Celia Carli, Ornithologist", and "Lia, Who
Thought Herself Antigone"), essays, talks, conversations, and
interviews given by the author at American universities.
The collection includes four theatrical works of acclaimed Italian
author, Dacia Maraini, in a dual-language format (Italian/English).
The works have been chosen around the themes of distress,
exclusion, and various manifestations of tragedy with particular
reference to women. The works were chosen within a modern and a
historical reference in order to give breadth to the main themes.
The individual works include: (a) Stravaganza/Extravagance. The
unfolding drama alludes to the Legge Basaglia (the so-called
Basaglia Law, 180/1978), whose prescriptions included the closure
of insane asylums throughout Italy; (b) Camille. In this piece,
Maraini offers a reinterpretation of the storied and controversial
relationship between the sculptor, Auguste Rodin, and his young
apprentice/assistant, Camille Claudel; (c) Storia di Isabella di
Morra raccontata da Benedetto Croce/The Story of Isabella di Morra
as Told by Benedetto Croce. In this play, the power of literature
and the written word (the implicit, culpable "character" in this
play) culminates in atrocious homicide; (d) I digiuni di Catarina
da Siena/The Fasting of Catherine of Siena. Powerful relationships
dominate this account of Saint Catherine's profound religiosity.
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My Husband (Paperback)
Dacia Maraini; Translated by Vera F. Golini
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R778
Discovery Miles 7 780
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Ships in 12 - 17 working days
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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 Eugene 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."
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.
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