Da “penso che sono maledetta tra le donne” a “Benedicta tu”: l’amore vs il trauma in Vae victis! di Annie Vivanti
Okładka czasopisma Studia Romanica Posnaniensia, tom 53, nr 2, rok 2026, tytuł L’amore, la spiritualità e la speranza nella letteratura italiana
PDF (Italiano)

Słowa kluczowe

trauma
war rape
abortus
rejection
healing relationship
love
blessing

Jak cytować

Serkowska, H. (2026). Da “penso che sono maledetta tra le donne” a “Benedicta tu”: l’amore vs il trauma in Vae victis! di Annie Vivanti. Studia Romanica Posnaniensia, 53(2), 21–33. https://doi.org/10.14746/strop.2026.53.2.2

Abstrakt

Trauma as a topic in psycho-analysis, literature and politics has been articulated in waves. Defined by French clinicians at end of the 19thC., trauma has become an increasingly present topic in a host of disciplines. Today trauma is hype and in our wound culture it asserts individual identity. Yet, already in her 1917 Vae victis! novel, the British-born Italian writer Annie Vivanti develops trauma occasioned by rape during World War I as a central issue. In a very balanced presentation, she shows how the stigma of rape itself, the pros and cons of abortion, are traumatic and thus in interesting ways anticipates a century of social debate in terms of psychological, cultural and political perspectives. Against the backdrop of contemporary eugenics, Vivanti argues for serious consideration of the victims and their inclusion in the community at large. She contends that an inoffensive, secure environment and a relationship with other human beings (who thereby act as informal therapists) help to heal them from consequences of extreme violence. She uses a religious stance to resolutely inasmuch as surprisingly refrain from taking sides for or against abortion, half a century before it will become a fervently disputed issue.

https://doi.org/10.14746/strop.2026.53.2.2
PDF (Italiano)

Bibliografia

Baranelli, L. (a cura di). (2000). Italo Calvino. Lettere 1940-1985. Milano: Mondadori.

Beevor, A. (2002). Berlin: The Downfall 1945. New York: Viking Press.

Brownmiller, S. (1975). Against our will. Men, women and rape. New York: Simon and Schuster.

Butler, J. (2009). Frames of war: When is life grievable? London-New York: Verso.

Calabrese, S., Conti, V. & Fioretti, Ch. (2022). Che cos’è la medicina narrativa. Roma: Carocci.

Caruth, C. (1996). Unclaimed experience: Trauma, narrative, and history. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/book.20656

Cavallucci, S. (2014). Dramma, satira e denuncia sociale: la guerra raccontata da Annie Vivanti. Fillide. Il sublime rovesciato: comico umorismo e affini, 9. https://fillide.it/sabrina-cavallucci-dramma-satira-e-denuncia-sociale-la-guerra-raccontata-da-annie-vivanti/

Cotugno, A.M. (2022). La violenza di guerra: lo stupro e l’identità femminile in Vae Victis! Di Annie Vivanti. Sinestesieonline, XI, 37. https://sinestesieonline.it/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/settembre2022-05.pdf

Didi-Huberman, G. (2003). Invention of hysteria. Charcot and the photographic iconography of the Salpêtrière. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Herman, J.L. (2005 [1992] trad.it.). Guarire dal trauma. Le conseguenze della violenza. Dall’abuso domestico al terrore politico. Bergamo: Magi.

Janet, P. (1990 [1898]). Névroses et idées fixes. T. I. Paris: Masson.

Lamb, Ch. (2020). Our bodies, their battlefield: What wart does to women. New York: HarperCollins Publishers.

Mantovani, C. (2004). Rigenerare la società. L’eugenetica in Italia dalle origini ottocentesche agli anni Trenta. Soveria Mannelli: Rubbettino.

Seltzer, M. (1998). Wound culture. The abnormal normality of trauma. In M. Selzer (a cura di). Serial killers: Death and life in America’s wound culture (pp. 253-292). London: Routledge.

Serkowska, H. (2025). „Chi se la sarà presa, così vecchia?” Il trauma da stupro (di guerra) e altro ne La Storia. Moderna. Semestrale di teoria e critica della letteratura, XXVII, 1-2, 143-157.

Shorter, E. (1997). A History of psychiatry. From the era of the Asylum to the age of Prozac. New York: John Wiley and Sons Inc.

Sinno, N. (2023). Triste tigre. Paris: P.O.L Éditeur.

Soglia, N. (2016). L’orrore degli stupri di guerra nelle opere di Annie Vivanti. Altrelettere, 11.01, 1-17. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5903/al_uzh-33

Traverso, A. & Broderick, M. (2011). Interrogating trauma: Toward critical trauma studies. In: M. Broderick & A. Traverso (a cura di), Interrogating trauma. Collective suffering in global arts and media (pp. 3-16). London: Routledge. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/10304310903461270

Vermeulen, P. (2013). The biopolitics of trauma. In: G. Beulens, S. Durrant & R. Eaglestone (a cura di), The future of trauma theory. Contemporary literary and cultural criticism (pp. 141–155). London: Routledge.

Vivanti, A. (1924). Vae victis!. Milano: Riccardo Quintieri.

Wehling-Giorgi, K. (2017). Playing with the maternal body: Violence, mutilation and the emergence of the female subject in ferrante’s novels. California Italian Studies, 7 (1), 1-15. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5070/C371030650