#Alba de cespedes

[italian-lit-tournament]

The participating authors for the Italian Lit(erature) Tournament: the general list + a google form to add other proposals

Podesti Francesco - Torquato Tasso reading Jerusalem Delivered to the Estensi court

The start of the Italian Lit(erature) Tournament (first edition) is getting closer, but first I want to post the general list of the authors partecipants.

The principal issue is that every literary canon is constantly changing, with more critical studies over the years. I've thought about it, read and searched, and the solution I found has two parts:

I will take the principal authors from this list, which in turn is based from the studies of Gianfranco Contini and Asor Rosa. The list is too long and many names are only chronicles and essayists, so I'll chose the principal ones, trying to balance between north/south Italy and male/female authors (taking into account that many authors that we study are men). As you will see below under the cut, the list is already pretty long, doing some math the challenge will be 2/3 months long.

Still, I recognise that this isn't 100% unbiased and fair, so I opened a free and quick google form when you can add a maximum of two authors that you don't see in the list. This considerable limit is to avoid having too many names - if in some answers I see more than 2 names, I'll take into account only the first 2 listed.

IMPORTANT! 👇

After much thoughts, I also chose to don't include living authors or authors death only recently (before January 2023). The reason is simply to avoid potential issues in the community, like bashing between fandom or admirers of some specific author, or going too far like offending some people near the author still alive or recently deceased. Maybe if this tournament will end well, a second edition could be made next year and maybe with the addition of living authors! (I'm already thinking to do an italian or european cinema tournament in the future but this is still in the draft).

Under the cut, you will find the list of the authors already part of the challenge, name-surname with the surname in alphabetical order. If you don't see a name that you want to see, use the form to add it!

edit: I added the ones from the surbey so far, all in italics. There are names that have been sent but already on the list.

Dante Alighieri

Sibilla Aleramo

Vittorio Alfieri

Cecco Angiolieri

Pietro Aretino

Ludovico Ariosto

Matteo Bandello

Anna Banti

Giambattista Basile

Giorgio Bassani

Cesare Beccaria

Maria Bellonci

Pietro Bembo

Matteo Maria Boiardo

Giovanni Boccaccio

Giordano Bruno

Dino Buzzati

Italo Calvino

Andrea Camilleri

Giosuè Carducci

Guido Cavalcanti

Carlo Collodi

Vittoria Colonna

Gabriele D'Annunzio

Giacomo da Lentini

Caterina da Siena

Alba de Céspedes

Cielo (Ciullo) d'Alcamo

Edoardo De Filippo

Federico de Roberto

Grazia Deledda

Umberto Eco

Beppe Fenoglio

Marsilio Ficino

Dario Fo

Ugo Foscolo

Veronica Franco

Carlo Emilio Gadda

Natalia Ginzburg

Carlo Goldoni

Antonio Gramsci

Francesco Guicciardini

Tommaso Landolfi

Giacomo Leopardi

Carlo Levi

Primo Levi

Carla Lonzi

Niccolò Machiavelli

Alessandro Manzoni

Giovanbattista Marino

Giovanni Meli

Pietro Metastasio

Eugenio Montale

Elsa Morante

Alberto Moravia

Anna Maria Ortese

Giuseppe Parini

Goffredo Parise

Giovanni Pascoli

Pier Paolo Pasolini

Cesare Pavese

Francesco Petrarca

Luigi Pirandello

Angelo Poliziano

Luigi Pulci

Salvator Quasimodo

Gianni Rodari

Lalla Romano

Amelia Rosselli

Umberto Saba

Emilio Salgari

Jacopo Sannazaro

Goliarda Sapienza

Leonardo Sciascia

Matilde Serao

Gaspara Stampa

Mario Rigoni Stern

Italo Svevo

Antonio Tabucchi

Torquato Tasso

Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa

Pier Vittorio Tondelli

Giovanni Verga

Giambattista Vico

Renata Viganò

Elio Vittorini

Giuseppe Ungaretti

[dinonfissatoaffetto]

Eravamo sempre di malumore.

Dopo l’amore,

fumavamo non so quanto,

(finiva col costare molto caro)

e continuavamo a ripetere:

«Non è questo,

non è questo soltanto

che vogliamo.

Dobbiamo fare

un’altra cosa.»

E così abbiamo fatto

la rivoluzione:

era quello che volevamo.

- Alba de Céspedes

[annacswenson]

« We're always inclined to forget what we've said or done in the past, partly in order not to have the tremendous obligation to remain faithful to it. Otherwise, it seems to me, we would all discover that we're full of mistakes and, above all, contradictions, between what we intended to do and what we have done, between what we desire to be and what we are content to be.»

—Alba de Cespédes, Forbidden Notebook

[smokingwiththestars]

Alba de Céspedes

[anokatony]

'Forbidden Notebook' by Alba de Cespedes - A Notebook and a Life of Her Own

  ‘Forbidden Notebook’ by Alba de Cespedes    (1952) – 259 pages                 Translated from the Italian by Ann Goldstein   In ‘Forbidden Notebook’ Valeria Cassati must make entries in her notebook surreptitiously. The other family members must not find out about it, which is not so easy to do with a husband and two college age children. She does not have a room of her own in their small…

[quartafuga]

Io che leggendo un libro sulla condizione femminile scritto da Alba de Cespedes negli anni 50 ritrovo tutte le costrizioni, i limiti, gli obblighi a cui si sente ancora costretta mia madre e che di riflesso stringono lo stomaco anche a me e su cui cerco di farle aprire gli occhi, spesso invano. Quanto lavoro c'è ancora da fare

[lanotteviene]

il fatto che una scrittrice come alba de cespedes non venga sfiorata al liceo e sia anzi stata risucchiata dal buco nero dell’oblio culturale e letterario è assurdo…intendo dire che non è solo sbagliato, come lo è per morante e maraini e soprattutto per deledda, ma che è proprio folle perché i temi che i suoi libri toccano, le strutture narrative, le protagoniste contorte e intelligenti si prestano perfettamente all’insegnamento scolastico liceale oltre che a quello universitario

[xolilith]

Eu comecei (num clube da leitura com minha amiga da faculdade. Tive que transformar em um compromisso, se não eu nunca leria 😔) Caderno Proibido da Alba Cespedes e me surpreendi. Por ter esse título, eu já imaginava que se tratasse de um diário. A personagem, Valéria, é casada e tem dois filhos. Num certo dia ela adquire esse caderno. É interessante porque a narração diz como ela se ente envergonhada e medrosa que o marido ou os filhos encontrem o caderno, mesmo antes dela começar a escrever qualquer coisa. Ela guarda sempre esse caderno como se fosse o pior segredo dela. Nas primeiras páginas escritas ele diz que não é assim tão interessante e que acha que não tera o suficiente para escrever, mas com o passar do tempo as coisas ficam mais profundas e ela vai começar a desabafar sobre a condição de vida dela, do casamento e como se sente em relação aos filhos. É tudo tão dolorido, sabe? Eu sempre me compadeço muito com mulheres nesse tipo de situação, o normal que é doloroso e limitante. Mas também é doloroso porque eu enxergo um pouco da minha mãe nela e me vejo no lugar dos filhos ingratos, então me fez refletir sobre isso.

Outra coisa que me chamou atenção é como escrever no diário fez ela refletir e entrar em contato com os próprios sentimentos. Como se fosse a única maneira dela desabafar. O poder do diário.

To só no começo, mas muito surpresa e tocada 😔

[nevinslibrary]

Weird & Wonderful Wednesday

This book takes place in the town of Weissenfels in Germany in the boarding house that had been the birthplace of a poet named Novalis (had to look him up, interesting person and poet). It’s about the lives of the women that lived there as the nineteenth century moved along.

It was very very dense, definitely not a ‘watch cooking shows while reading’ sort of book. And, it was much more prose poetry instead of straight up prose. It took me a bit to get into the rhythm of it, but, once I did it was a beautiful and definitely interesting piece of fiction.

You may like this book If you Liked: Her Side of the Story by Alba De Cespedes, Whereabouts by Jhumpa Lahiri, or The Door by Magda Szabo

Prodigies by Angélica Gorodischer

[petalididonna]

Del resto, l'affetto

non è che questo:

un calore istintivo,

senza motivo, che ci pervade

nonostante tutto quanto

ci divida

Alba De Cespedes

Buongiorno ❤️

[devosopmaandag]

'This is my letter to the world' 2

“...ik droom ervan om een kamer voor mezelf te hebben. [–] Ik zou allang blij zijn met een berghok. Maar ik kan me nooit afzonderen, en alleen door slaap in te leveren vind ik de tijd om in dit schrift te schrijven.”, noteert Valeria in haar dagboek. Dertig jaar voor Alba de Cespedes' roman verscheen Virginia Woolfs later beroemd geworden 'A room of ones own', waarin zij het beeld schetst van de problemen van vrouwen met intellectuele ambities. Een eigen kamer en 500 pond, daarover zou een vrouw moeten beschikken om vrij te kunnen zijn.

In de krappe woning, die ze deelt met echtgenoot en twee volwassen kinderen, maakt Valeria haar 'room of one's own' van gestolen uren in de keuken. Haar 'vijfhonderd pond' die ze verdient als secretaresse verdwijnt geruisloos in de huishoudpot. De spanningen die dat leven meebrengt, sleuren ook de lezer mee in haar wanhopige pogingen om te ontsnappen aan de kooi die anderen om haar heen bouwden, en waarin zij zich zo lang gewillig liet opsluiten. Een wederzijdse verliefdheid tussen haar en haar baas zorgt voor de illusie van een vlucht. Het boek eindigt in wanhoop: “Dit zal de laatste pagina zijn; op de volgende zal ik niets meer schrijven en mijn toekomstige dagen zullen net als die pagina's wit, glad en koud blijven.”

Zo'n boek kun je lezen als een noodlotsverhaal, waarmee Valeria slecht een gedoemd personage wordt. Dat zou geen recht doen aan haar. Valeria bezit een gevoelsleven, dat naarmate het verhaal vordert, steeds complexer wordt. Omdat de vorm die van een dagboek is, raak ik vertrouwd met haar dromerijen, verlangens, dwaasheden, angsten, frustraties en wanhoop, maar ook met haar onvermijdelijke, huiselijke verplichtingen. Dat alles tezamen vormt haar rijkdom. Het gegeven dat zij een romanfiguur is, maakt dat ik meer dan mededogen vooral bewondering krijg voor de schittering van haar innerlijk leven.

Clarisse Lispector schrijft in een van haar kronieken: “Denken is een daad, voelen is een feit”. Die uitspraak kwam bij eerste lezing krachtig bij mij binnen. Denken en voelen, dat zijn toch die oude claims van het mannelijke en het vrouwelijke, waarbij het ene actief en bevragend is en het andere passief en bevestigend? Maar, zegt Lispector, vergis je niet: gevoelens zijn feiten! Ze zijn onontkoombaar aanwezig, eisen hun plek op, werken onvermijdelijk in op hun omgeving. Wiskundigen, wier denken super-gedisciplineerd is, doen soms de mooiste ontdekkingen door een ingeving. En als ingevingen niet goddelijk van aard zijn, wat anders dan gevoelens?

Slechts twee maanden voor dat wanhopige einde schrijft Valeria: “ik vind het fijn om me te verliezen in de zekerheid dat ik springlevend ben. Ik voel steeds een liefdevolle aanwezigheid om me heen, een welwillende blik.[-] De lucht om me heen heeft een nieuwe energie en alles lijkt aantrekkelijker in mijn ogen.” Nog een uitspraak van Lispector: “Wat is het sterkste wat er is? Het instinct dat je bestaat.”

[annacswenson]

"I wondered if I was a good daughter, and then if I'm a good mother and a good wife, but, after a brief examination of my conscience, I had to admit that to all those questions I could answer yes and no with the same sincerity and, I believe, the same validity. So I stopped asking myself and I prayed God to help [my daughter], and me as wel, because we all have a great need of it."

—Alba de Céspedes, Forbidden Notebook

[delectablywaywardbeard-blog]

De Cespedes, Taccuino Proibito nella Top 100 del NYT

Decenni dopo la prima edizione in inglese, il Quaderno Proibito di Alba De Cespedes entra nella lista dei 100 libri dell’anno del New York Times assieme a titoli diversissimi come The Fraud di Zadie Smith, Holly di Stephen King, Kairos di Jenny Erpenbeck e l’Iliade nella nuova traduzione di Emily Wilson “fatta per leggere il poema omerico a voce alta”. Il libro della De Cespedes e’ stato…

[paoloferrario]

da Alba De Cespedes, Dalla parte di Lei

Dalla parte di Lei

[nochargebookbunch]

Forbidden Notebook

Years ago a good friend advised me to destroy my journal pages soon after I wrote them, especially if I had used them to vent anger or frustration. Of course, I did not follow her advice. In the introduction to Alba de Cespedes Forbidden Notebook, Jhumpa Lahiri reminds the reader that “ whether intended for publication or not…(diaries and notebooks) are all dialogues with the self. They are…