Bompiani, Schneider e le altre: voci di donne, pseudonimi e scherzi d’autore nel laboratorio del «Semplice» (1995-1997)

Olga Campofreda

doi:10.6092/issn.1721-4777/15494

Authors

Olga Campofreda University College London

Olga Campofreda is a Honorary Research Fellow at University College London, where she gained her PhD in Italian Studies. She is the author of the monograph Dalla generazione all’individuo: giovinezza, identità, impegno nell’opera di Pier Vittorio Tondelli (Mimesis, 2020) and co-editor of the Special Issue Italian Girlhoods and Other Brilliant Friends («altrelettere», 2022). Among her publications, there are several articles on academic journals on the topic of Coming of Age and Italian women writers. She is a member of the Italian Girlhood Studies Research Network.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.1721-4777/15494

Keywords:

Contemporary Italian literature, Italian short stories, Nineties, Women Writers, Gender studies

Abstract

The following article analises women writers’ contributions published on «Il Semplice» between 1995 and 1997. First, I look at the styles and the recurrent topics of the short stories, then I consider them within the wider context of mainstream literature by Italian women writers in the Nineties, especially writers who were representative of a postfeminist aesthetics. In the second part, the article looks in depth at the “pseudonyms’ issue”, by investigating possible reasons behind the choice of several male authors to publish under a female name. This research is based on original letters exchanged between the journal board and Daniele Benati; thanks to these documents it has been possible to reconstruct comments and thoughts behind the editing of some of the journal’s publications. In the conclusion, I discuss how the editorial board addressed gender-related issues, rejecting any kind of political and social engagement as it had been known during the Sixties and Seventies.