Parole impreviste. La sofferenza nell’autobiografia delle attrici italiane dopo il femminismo

This study analyzes the autobiographical texts of Italian actresses who went through during their careers, albeit in generational difference, the so-called second-wave feminism: a real revolution, invading the social and media dimensions at multiple levels, feminism extending from the second half of the 1960s to the first half of the 1980s acted as a social turbulence capable of modifying gestures, thoughts, emotions. The essay investigates how the trace of this revolution between private and public can also be found in the writings of actresses and how, in particular, the narrative that passes from the emotional spectrum of suffering – anxiety, fear, anguish, melancholy – seems to resonate with the practice of self-consciousness. By drawing on the autobiographies of an eterogeneous group of actresses with different level of stardom status (Sophia Loren, Claudia Cardinale, Catherine Spaak, Paola Pitagora, Goliarda Sapienza, Monica Vitti) and sources of 1970s and early 1980s, the investigation seeks to demonstrate how the account of suffering constitutes a space for the construction of women’s subjectivity and how, therefore, the narratives of actresses can help delineate the contours of a possible common language of liberty.