Truth, metaphor and female perspective in Italian literature

People often disagree about what is true; but what is true is not always as obvious as we might expect it should be. Sometimes artists, writers, 电影制作人和其他创意人士用富有想象力的方式向人们展示他们可能看不到的真相.

安娜·玛丽亚·奥蒂斯(Anna Maria Ortese, 1914-1998)就是这样一个人，她是罗马作家，在那不勒斯长大, an impoverished government employee, had to move his family often because of his job. Thus, Ortese grew up feeling like a stranger in her own country, 这使她创造了一种独特的意大利新现实主义的写作风格，她用这种风格表达了难以解释的真理. 她用富有想象力的幻想，以有力、扣人心弦的方式呈现现实.

意大利新现实主义(二战后在意大利流行起来的一种文学运动)“试图呈现意大利本来的样子,” said Cosetta Seno, associate professor of Italian at the University of Colorado Boulder. Mussolini’s fascist regime presented a perfected portrait of Italy, 新现实主义运动想要为这个国家提供一幅真实的肖像. “(They) were hoping that, by doing so, Italy would have a real chance of becoming a better country for all the Italians; a country where equality and justice could be shared by all.”

塞诺来自意大利中部艾米利亚-罗马涅地区的沿海小镇里米尼，在威尼斯以西的维罗纳地区长大。在读研究生的时候，她特别被奥提斯的作品所感动. In 2013, she wrote a book about Ortese titled Anna Maria Ortese Unavventuroso realismo (Anna Maria Ortese: An Adventurous Realism)，展示了奥蒂斯如何利用幻想来更好、更深入地理解现实, rather than escape it.

塞诺最初对奥蒂斯感兴趣是因为奥蒂斯的一篇短篇小说俘获了她的心. “Un paio di occhiali” (A Pair of Glasses), part of the collection, il mare non bagna Napoli (Neapolitan Chronicles)，讲述了那不勒斯一个几乎完全失明的小女孩的故事.

“She was too poor for a pair of glasses,” she said. “Her aunt saved money to buy her glasses. When she used them for the first time, 她意识到她生活在一条贫穷的街道上，而不是她一直想象的美丽的林荫大道. 她痛苦地意识到自己的社会地位和家庭的贫困. She got nauseous and she had to take the glasses off. She couldn’t stand to look at the reality she lived in.

“In this story, Ortese offered a very unique interpretation of neorealism by juxtaposing reality and fantasy in a very special way; which made her an eccentric and difficult writer to classify within the Italian literary canon.”

Another profound story that drew Seno to Ortese was, The Iguana, written in 1965, 一个来自米兰的年轻富有的贵族爱上了一个虚构岛屿上的鬣蜥.

“After World War II, people were tuned into re-building and expanding the devastated cities,” she said. “Many parks and forests were destroyed in this process, 城市的重建没有考虑到任何环境问题. There was no respect for nature or animals. Ortese made people reflect on the idea that animals deserved equal care, 爱和尊重，因为他们与博彩平台推荐共享地球，如果博彩平台推荐想要生存的机会，就需要被理解和尊重. 她是意大利最早讨论这些问题的人之一，当时还没有人讨论生态学. She was ahead of her time. About her 1965 novel, 奥蒂斯说，这几乎是一本自传——一个一半是女人，一半是爬行动物的人的故事. She put herself in the skin of an animal to express how she felt different. It was a metaphor for the life of a woman.

“The point of view of women is difficult to explain. When a woman talks about her reality, 她经常考虑到人类和其他不属于自己的生物的多样性. It is often a more inclusive perspective. Women intrinsically know what it means to be different, 因此更倾向于包容所有其他不同的生物.”

Women’s studies is another passion of Seno’s. 她是AAIS(美国意大利研究协会)妇女研究核心小组的前当选主席，并通过对女性作家和性别理论的研究继续在女性研究领域工作. In spring 2019, she received the departmental teaching award. She specializes in 19th and 20th century Italian literature and culture.

塞诺在意大利获得英语和俄语文学学位后，大约25岁时来到美国. 在美国朋友鼓励她抓住申请美国研究生院的机会之前，她一直在俄罗斯为一家非营利性美国组织工作. 她被弗吉尼亚大学录取并完成了意大利研究硕士学位. From there she went to University of California at Berkeley, where she received her doctorate in Italian studies.

“保持与意大利祖国的联系很重要，”她说. “I wanted to continue to understand my culture more. You re-discover it when you go abroad. 我在美国生活的日子比在意大利生活的日子更感兴趣.”

After her graduation, she taught Italian at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, and at the Catholic University of America. 2007年，她获得了博彩平台推荐教授意大利文学和文化的终身教职，并于2014年获得终身教职.

Her first book, co-authored by Professor Paolo Cherchi, l’italiano nell'America del nord (The Italians and the Italian Language in North America) was published in 2010. She is currently working on her new book length project, tentatively titled Mediterranean Spaces and Places within Narrative Reportage, 在这本书中，她分析了报告文学叙事类型的演变，特别提到了那不勒斯市的表现. 2019年，她被邀请担任意大利文学杂志特刊的客座编辑 Il Lettore di Provincia, devoted to the education of young women in post-unification Italy. It was published in April 2020.

Seno将她的意大利价值观社区和合作带到她的教学中. “Like most people, my values are mixed now,” she said. “I bring the best of both cultures to teaching. It’s important to embrace communication—direct communication. I get to know my students personally. 博彩平台推荐系的班级比较小，所以我很荣幸能了解他们. ... And thanks to my American education, 我学会了把教学看作是一种不断挑战我的观点和观点的方式，以便接受和理解我学生的观点,” she said. “It is a growing experience for everyone in the class.”

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