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donnawomanfemme
Roma, Editrice coop. UTOPIA, 1986-
Geography of Signs, 1995, n. 28
EDITORIAL, Geography of Signs, pp. 2-3
BONO Paola - MASI Paola
Rafts of Desire, pp. 4-12
VACCARI Marzia
Navigating Internet, pp. 13-21
FORTINI Laura
Marks on the Wall, pp. 22-36
MURA M. Giannina
Itineraries: the infinite visual field of women's cinema,
pp. 37-49
KEMP Sandra
Eccentric steps: the language of modern dance, pp.
50-56
RICCIARDI Cloti
Our lateral gaze, pp. 57-60
MURARO Luisa - DORIA Francesca
Itineraries of Love in the Thought of Luce Irigaray, pp.
61-70
CAPOMAZZA Tilde
Eyes to See, pp. 71-76
EDITORIAL, Geography of Signs, pp. 2-3
The geographical imaginary has changed, registering both historical and symbolic changes. We, many women, are "nomadic subjects"; positioning ourselves we identify - in various fields - the signs of our expression, we read and interpret them, we circulate them: witness the articles published in this issue.
One of them, the last, reminds us that such a relation, of circulation and collective interpretation, does not always lake place; there can be a dangerous satisfaction in the awareness that there now is a female/feminist subject expressing herself, a passive reliance on this gendered representation.
BONO Paola - MASI Paola, Rafts of Desire, pp. 4-12
With a mix of personal memories and general observations and reflections, the authors look al the ways in which the geographical imaginary - the sites of desire - have changed in the last decades.
VACCARI Marzia, Navigating Internet, pp. 13-21
The author looks at the new possibilities opened up by developments in the field of informatics as they can be used to improve networking among women. She analyses some examples, focussing upon possible obstacles to overcome in order to see and utilise these new technologies as a means of empowerment.
FORTINI Laura, Marks on the Wall, pp. 22-36
The author retraces and constructs the genealogical ties linking a group of Italian women writers (who pre-date feminism but also anticipate it in ways which have not always been fully understood and valued) to the new wave of contemporary writers. Starting with a discussion of the work of Maria Bellonci, Anna Banti, Alba de Céspedes, Elsa Morante,
Fortini then moves on to these young writers, and identifies their distinctive mark in "the taking over of a body which is at one with the mind… They say 'I', and they need not say they are female; as they say it, in the way they say it, the forms of narration are changed".
MURA M. Giannina, Itineraries: the infinite visual field of women's cinema,
pp. 37-49
The author remarks that women are now a significant presence at all levels in the film industry, and tries to identify the parameters and visions of a feminist discourse in the cinema.
With reference to the main critical texts which have founded feminist film theory, she analyses the work of four film makers, coming from different cultures and working in different contexts: Pratibha Parmar, Trin T. Minh-ha, Julie Dash, Claire Denis, whose films were presented in June 1995 at the American Centre in Paris during a conference on Travelling Cultures: sex, race and the media, organised by E. Ann Kaplan and Yann Beauvais.
KEMP Sandra, Eccentric steps: the language of modern dance, pp. 50-56
"Like other art forms, dance progresses by violent redefinitions", the author writes, focussing upon the main steps of this process from the Sixties until now. In this context "the changing image of the dancer is also significant. Current choreographers are increasingly taking into account the historical and cultural 'object' (in the case, the body), and how its changing manifestations have been produced and evaluated".
RICCIARDI Cloti, Our lateral gaze, pp. 57-60
Ricciardi, a sculptor of some standing, analyses the relationship artist-work of art-gaze as the necessary foundation of any symbolic change in artistic production. She remarks that "with a few exceptions, women artists cannot rely on their 'natural' audience, an audience of women"; this jeopardises the possibility of putting into question and weakening the prevailing point of view and linguistic codes.
And yet, Ricciardi argues, "our lateral gaze, which in these past years has traversed and decodifies the real, has now become in many women artists' work a conscious tool to introduce elements of change" in the symbolic structure.
MURARO Luisa - DORIA Francesca, Itineraries of Love in the Thought of Luce
Irigaray, pp. 61-70
Luisa Muraro, philosopher and member of the philosophical community "Diotima" in Verona, introduces a short paper by a young scholar, Francesca Doria. The author retraces the development of Irigaray's thought in its dialectical relationship with both Freud and Lacan; she identifies in "women's love for the mother, a crucial love both for women and men" the crucial step for the modification of the phallocratic symbolic order.
Doria analyses critically the most recent developments of Irigaray's thought, and concludes: "As long as the mother, the origin, remains the obscure site which men confuses with the women, and women abandons for man, a discourse of love is impossible".
CAPOMAZZA Tilde, Eyes to See, pp. 71-76
The author - a documentary video-maker with a remarkable experience in this field - who took part in the U.N. Conference and in the Women's Forum in Beijing, reflects on her work in relation to this event. She has realised two documentaries, both for the AIDoS (Italian Association Women and Development): See you in Beijing, about the long preparatory phase which involved scares of women all over the world, and The days of Beijing, about the Forum and the Conference, seen in the light of her own feminist story and experiences.