ContentsIntroductionRevising the Canon: Italian Women Writers/Maria O. MarottiPart I: Canon Formation/Canon Revision1. Women Writers and the Canon in Contemporary Italy/JoAnn Cannon2. From One Closet to Another? Feminism, Literary Archaeology, and the Canon/Beverly Allen3. Italian "Difference Theory": A New Canon?/Renate HolubPart II: Renaissance Women: Rethinking the Canon4. Renaissance Women Defending Women: Arguments Against Patriarchy/Constance Jordan5. Selling the Self, or the Epistolary Production of Renaissance Courtesans/Fiora A. BassanesePart III: At the Turn of the Century: Women Writers at the Margins of the Canon6. Double Marginality: Matilde Serao and the Politics of Ambiguity/Nancy Harrowitz7. The Diaries of Sibilla Aleramo: Constructing Female Subjectivity/Bernadette Luciano8. Narrative Voice and the Regional Experience: Redefining Female Images in the Works of Maria Messina/Elise MagistroPart IV: Contemporary Women Writers: Toward a New Canon9. Brushing Benjamin Against the Grain: Elsa Morante and the Jetzeit of Marginal History/Maurizia Boscagli10. From Genealogy to Gynealogy and Beyond: Fausta Cialente's Le Quattro Ragazze Wieselberger/Graziella Parati11. Ethnic Matriarchy: Fabrizia Ramondino's Neapolitan World/Maria Ornella Marotti12. Mythic Revisionism: Women Poets and Philosophers in Italy Today/Lucia RePart V: Women as Filmmakers: Images of Women/Images by Women/Images for Women13. Monica Vitti: The Image and the Word/Marga Cottino-Jones14. Signifying the Holocaust: Liliana Cavani's Portiere di notte/Marguerite Waller