Prose of female writers: syntax of debut novels of the Thirties

Abstract

The article examines the syntax of seven novels from female writers who debut in the Thirties: Tempo Innamorato by Gianna Manzini, Natalia by Fausta Terni Cialente, Il romanzo di molta gente by Giana Anguissola, Monte Ignoso by Paola Masino, Disordine by Marise Ferro, Il lume spento by Renata Viganò and Itinerario di Paolina by Anna Banti. The chose to adopt a gender prospective is motivated by the fact that the existing dialect is much more evident among the work of female writers and the literature and linguistical dominant model, to which they relate and adhere in a partial, indirect and critic way. In the first part of the article the novels are inserted in the varied and complex literary landscape of the time. In the second part, the linguistic analysis lights up the presence of three models, three genealogical dominant ancestries in the first half of the century, with which the female writers’ works are related in a dialectic way, throughout different processes of re-elaboration and contamination.