Una mujer (A Woman)

Escrito por Sibilla Aleramo

Narrado por Rosa Vásquez

Esta novela fue publicada por primera vez en 1906, y su repentino éxito dio a conocer al mundo a una autora que a lo largo de su prolífica carrera demostró en numerosas ocasiones un innato talento narrativo y un mordaz compromiso por la causa de la emancipación de la mujer, ambos plasmados con excepcional fuerza en las páginas de este libro. Su carga reivindicativa y su valiente denuncia contra la opresión machista hacen de Una mujer una de las primeras novelas feministas aparecidas en Italia y en Europa, y de su autora una pionera adelantada a su contexto literario y social. Tanto es así que, como destacó certeramente la crítica, tras la publicación de Una mujer «Aleramo dejó de ser solo una escritora para convertirse en una reivindicadora de la igualdad de géneros, en una rebelde». Después de más de un siglo desde su primera publicación, este apasionado retrato autobiográfico de una mujer que lucha por el derecho a vivir en plenitud y libertad se confirma como una lectura actual e imprescindible.

• Idioma: Español
• Editorial: BookaVivo
• Traductor: Melina Márquez
• Fecha de lanzamiento: 15 mar 2022
• ISBN: 9781638117100

Comentarios para Una mujer (A Woman)

[alanwpowers · Calificación: 5 de 5 estrellas]

This work, largely autobiographical, though lessened from her own pain. Born Milanese, she went with her father to the Papal Marches where he headed a factory. Married at 15 to her older rapist, she bore one child, Walter. Leaving her brutal husband, she was encouraged by friends to write about her life, which eventually included an affair with Umberto Boccioni, whose paintings and sculpture I have seen in the Brera Museo, Milano. (Boccioni’s life ended terribly, age 33, when drafted into the WWI Italian army horse troops, he fell from his horse in training and was trampled to death.) In Una Donna, the father, Babbo, heads a factory, and stupefies local women, rejecting their offers of chicken to favor hiring their kids; but they had “bontà istintiva,” reproving only the manager, not the man. Babbo, at first amused, grew rancorous, and through isolation unknowingly lost, “perdeva l’equilibria del giudizio” and exaggerated his own superiorità (34). To avoid expected female timidity, the writer wears a red beret (like my artist wife) and walks in front.When Babbo hosts forty people for dinner and live music, his and Mama’s dancing makes them seem younger. Her mother had a son and two other daughters, but jumps from a balcony. And, “viveva” (38). Soon after, Babbo observes that the writer “diventerà bella.” As for Mama, old men seeing her pass made the sign of the cross, “demonietta.” Her suicide attempt was seen as a disgrace, not the natural consequence of women’s diminished position in Italy.When Babbo takes a mistress, young Aleramo finally revolts against her always-admired father. Her criticism of him results in his firing her from the factory, though her fellow office-worker, a guy, pays court. She spends hours at the beach, but when not there, alone in her room, looking at her hands. She marries her co-worker, who’s told she’s an enviable wife, with “ingegno,” though he finds her sleepy. She discovers his letters from women, one during their engagement.Her sister-in-law, a witch of thirty, “zitellone sui trent’anni” always complaining, imperious and cold, bound by chains of land and name (57). This leaves young Aleramo repugnant, torpid, not overcoming their frigidity. She sleeps the sleep of childhood, “fanciulla” (age under 17); her interesting conversation, with a young physician with a maeditative, independent spirit (59). She finds women’s inertia enviable.Her torpor leaves her without the energy to judge her father, though eh felt he contributed to the shipwreck of her consciousness, “quel naufragio della sea conscienza”(60). When her mother arrives “in disorder”— probably beaten by Babbo— the writer feels much of her mother’s defeat she shares: common to all Italian women.When she’s pregnant with a son, her mother-in-law brags, “I had ten children,” but six were early dead; this multi-mom claimed children needed to undergo five or six illnesses, from whom God chose to take his angeli. Our author responds, “Povera vecchia!” At the same time, her father-in-law lay in bed from long illness, as did her husband, with angina. Her suocero dies, the first death in her experience.This town was filled with, “Questa paese regnava una grande ipocrisia”(68). Youngters exploited parents, no wife confided her true expenses. No husband brought home his full pay. Few couples were faithful. Shortly earlier, a son had killed his father whom he caught sleeping with his own wife. Many women sold themselves for the love of ornament.“E mio figlio nasceva in quest’ambiente!”(69). She begins Ch.VII with birthing, and writes freshly, enthused. On a rainy April morning she first kisses her son, life for the first time assuming in her eyes “un aspetto celestiale,” in which she becomes an atom of the Infinite, “un atom felice, abbandonato new Mistero radioso”(70).Ch VIII. Birth of son leads to her plan to write, “il mio esordio di scrittrice” of her libriccino (76). Her son’s hands, “irrequiete, prepotenti, sempre occupate,” the best description of a baby’s hands, trying to grasp what they cannot yet. Her mart, husband, plans to leave for awhile, sits her on his lap as he did while courting, but has never loved him. She writes letters to another man, feels now that life offers her love, she must accept (83).They meet, but she feels nauseous, rejects his carress. In the next chapter, IX, she feels she is on the same abject level as her husband, only worse, “più abbietto perché lei lo sapeva”(87). Of course, the wife finds one of her letters, and confides in the doctor, a personal friend of our author. The doctor fails to elicit her promise never to see the man. Our writer combats her feelings, describing her combat as a shipwreck, "naufragio"-- a metaphor she repeats. Her husband blames her for her incomplete affair, but soon accepts her story, finds it a minor incident, "un episodio insignificate" (97). She was forbidden to leave her house during the day, but found it a respite, a forced repose, though still "mio carciere." Chapter XI graces us with a brilliant passage on awaking,"Tavolta al mattino abbiamo la sensazione nitida d'aver passato una notte densa di sogni e di fantasmi grandiosi, e d'avuto vissuto in fuggevoli istanti di dormiveglia una vita profuna, ma non riusciamo a ricostruire le visione né a rifare i pensieri notturni"(105). I suppose this is why I record dreams in my journal, for instance one last night where I attended a huge party in Obama's multi-roomed house, filled with guests; when I saw Obama, he looked older, and I realized I hadn't seen him during his entire presidency (this is true!).Halfway through the novel, Ch XII, she uses her title for the first time, "una donna" as the object of her birth, not merely a person of sacrifice. As she forgets everything (even her son) in order to write, she discovers her life purpose, partly through an engineer who's worked all over, often for railroads (track laid in Amherst, MA, in the 1850's) and organizes factory workers--thus, he's banned by Babbo, the factory manager. Her purpose, like his to raise workers, hers to raise her sisters (one enamored of the engineer), her mother now declined, almost a child: to raise women, "emacipazione." Almost a religious dismay invaded her, the solemn hours of her life (115).

[starbox_2 · Calificación: 2 de 5 estrellas]

I managed 100 pages. And though I was well over halfway, just couldn't face any more.This is an autobiographical work of 1906, regarded as some of the earliest feminist literature. Daughter of a middle class Italian family, Aleramo is the bright daughter of a loving father and slightly strange mother. I had high hopes at this stage!After a young man at her workplace - her social inferior -with whom she's enjoyed a flirtation, one day manages to Have his Wicked Way, we have a certain empathy with her. Perhaps somewhat less when, in opposition to her father, she nonetheless marries the cad. Aleramo's work suffers, I think, not from the fact she makes errors in judgement along the way, but through her endless criticism of everybody else. Her meanderings into her frame of mind, her moods, are all very much tinged by the rotten things those around her are doing. I didn't seem to see ANY delving into her OWN course of action - and since this wasnt written till she was 30, I might have expected a little more self awareness.Thus although one in no way supports her husband throwing her to the ground and keeping her under a kind of house arrest after she arranges an (ultimately fruitless) assignation with another man in his absence....one doesn't put ALL the blame on him. Aleramo seems to.When Mummy 's increasingly erratic behaviour lead her to ultimately be placed in an asylum, (and her actions, as described by her loving daughter, certainly seem to justify it), Aleramo seems to have no patience with Daddy's life now revolving around his new mistress.Page after page of wittering on the iniquities of her life; her awakening social conscience, her taking up writing (encouraged by the husband, who has also by now engaged domestic help for her. I kept thinking that compared to many at the time, her life wasn't UNREMITTINGLY bleak. She had a child she loved, a rewarding career; the doctor down the street provides a romantic frisson for her... Her fulminations on her mother's cruel comittal to a mental hospital don't translate into "I'll let her live with me."Ms Aleramo, if she was around today, would, I suspect, be a loudly virtue-signalling social justice warrior, drawing attention constantly to the failings of the rest of mankind.Couldn't stand to read another page!

[lolawalser · Calificación: 5 de 5 estrellas]

Important document of the beginnings of female emancipation in Italy, a private but generalisable experience told with utmost sincerity and psychological insight. Largely biographical, it also contains a valuable description of a young girl's development, until the paralysing catastrophe of marriage, at fifteen, to a man who had "initiated" her sexually by rape. The girl's remarkable character and free-thinking upbringing set her at odds with the society which doesn't recognise females as persons, as deserving of rights and respect as any male. Neither the nameless character in the book nor Aleramo ever gained wholly the privileges and liberties men take for granted, but that they fought was an unprecedented enterprise, and a victory in itself.