https://italianstudiesinsa.org/ojs/index.php/issa <p>Studi d’Italianistica nell’Africa Australe / Italian Studies in Southern Africa (ISSA) is published bi-annually and aims at providing a forum for academic discussion on all aspects of Italian culture. The journal features articles on the Italian language and literature and, since it is one of the primary aims of the journal to foster multi- and inter-disciplinary study and communication, contributions are invited from all writers interested in Italian culture, irrespective of their specific disciplines. Contributions of a less theoretical nature which provide an insight into Italian culture, especially as it manifests itself in Southern Africa, will also receive attention.</p> <p><a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/" rel="license"><img style="border-width: 0;" src="https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-nd/4.0/88x31.png" alt="Creative Commons License"></a><br>This work is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/" rel="license">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a>.</p> API en-US Italian Studies in South Africa 1012-2338 <p>(c) API and University of the Witwatersrand</p> https://italianstudiesinsa.org/ojs/index.php/issa/article/view/347 Anita Virga Copyright (c) 2024 Italian Studies in South Africa http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0 2026-03-14 2026-03-14 37 2 I V https://italianstudiesinsa.org/ojs/index.php/issa/article/view/348 Silvia Zangrandi Copyright (c) 2024 Italian Studies in South Africa http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0 2026-03-14 2026-03-14 37 2 VI XII https://italianstudiesinsa.org/ojs/index.php/issa/article/view/359 Anita Virga Copyright (c) 2024 Italian Studies in South Africa http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0 2026-03-14 2026-03-14 37 2 120 130 https://italianstudiesinsa.org/ojs/index.php/issa/article/view/349 The recent discovery of additional letters directed by Anna Maria Ortese to Marta Maria (called Mattia) Pezzoli, former owner of the successful epistolary published in 2023 under the title Vera gioia è vestita di dolore. Lettere a Mattia, was given as an opportunity for a reflection on the theme of friendship as friendship of and between women, long banished from our cultural history and whose history remains yet to be written. In fact, the letters in question exemplarily document the power and resources of this kind of relationship, which, when it is firm and deep, not only shows itself as what is excellent in human existence, and therefore in the private lives of the subjects involved, but also functions as the axis of rotation of the world that from old becomes new, and revises and refunds its own balance. Since it is a relationship that contradicts the male's claim to be “the signifier and the signified of all [feminine] desire”, as Luce Irigaray wrote in This Sex that is Not a Sex, and in so doing subverts existing power arrangements. Monica Farnetti Copyright (c) 2024 Italian Studies in South Africa http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0 2026-03-14 2026-03-14 37 2 1 15 https://italianstudiesinsa.org/ojs/index.php/issa/article/view/351 Anna Maria Ortese’s journalism is full of potential, subjected to continuous changes in form and substance. The writer eliminates any distinction between her literary production and the articles intended for the third page of the newspaper. Ortese collaborates with articles on current affairs, customs, civil intervention or by proposing the typical performance of the correspondent, the reportage or the travel writing. Moving between objectivity and subjective vision, the writer takes on a moral commitment that unites literature and journalism. From archive research, journalistic articles have emerged that showcase the author’s relationship with journalism. This contribution therefore aims to investigate this aspect, where civil and literary passion form a single authentic personality. Marianna Scamardella Copyright (c) 2024 Italian Studies in South Africa http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0 2026-03-14 2026-03-14 37 2 32 47 https://italianstudiesinsa.org/ojs/index.php/issa/article/view/350 Ortese’s relationship with cinema was more occasional and less prominent than that of other writers of her generation. Nevertheless, several articles published in the magazine Film in early 1945 are of considerable interest — particularly the short story Cinema e vita, which reveals the crucial role of cinema in shaping her imaginative world. In Ortese’s writings from the 1950s, cinema becomes a cultural phenomenon, linked to the figure of the engaged intellectual and the season of Neorealism, while the author’s own reflections highlight her somewhat marginal position within this context. The essay also examines Ortese’s enigmatic collaboration on the screenplay for Fabio De Agostini’s film Lauta mancia, which displays striking affinities with her poetic universe. Emiliano Morreale Copyright (c) 2024 Italian Studies in South Africa http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0 2026-03-14 2026-03-14 37 2 16 31 https://italianstudiesinsa.org/ojs/index.php/issa/article/view/354 L’articolo riconsidera la portata estetica e politica di Sud: Giornale di cultura (1945-47), soffermandosi anche su alcuni contributi che Anna Maria Ortese ha apportato alla rivista. Il saggio colloca Sud all’interno del più ampio panorama delle riviste fiorite nell’immediato dopoguerra, mettendone in luce i tratti distintivi. Segue un’analisi critica – inevitabilmente selettiva e non esaustiva – dei sette fascicoli della rivista, con attenzione alle sue dichiarazioni estetiche e politiche nonché ai contributi fondamentali nei campi del reportage, della poesia, della traduzione e della critica d’arte, letteraria e cinematografica, anche in prospettiva transculturale. Una lettura ravvicinata del racconto ortesiano “Dolente splendore del vicolo” e del reportage “Roma, la capitale: Corrispondenza di Anna Maria Ortese”, insieme a una discussione conclusiva dei paratesti aggiunti dall’autrice all’edizione del 1994 de Il mare non bagna Napoli, corrobora l’ipotesi che Sud abbia rappresentato un luogo cruciale nel dibattito politico ed estetico del secondo dopoguerra italiano e che Ortese, almeno fino alla pubblicazione de Il mare non bagna Napoli nel 1953, sia rimasta coerente con i principi ideologici della rivista (ad esempio universalismo, realismo, e utopia). Roberto Interdonato Copyright (c) 2024 Italian Studies in South Africa http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0 2026-03-14 2026-03-14 37 2 48 73 https://italianstudiesinsa.org/ojs/index.php/issa/article/view/356 This article examines the epistolary column managed by Anna Maria Ortese for the newspaper L’Unità in the summer of 1950. Moving beyond the traditional image of Ortese as an apolitical or isolated writer, the analysis highlights how her work as a journalist positioned her as a “civic writer”. By responding to letters from women readers, Ortese elaborated a vision of social justice, labour dignity, and feminist emancipation. This study reinterprets Ortese’s intellectual posture through the lens of dialogism, collective authorship, and historical-political engagement. Cristina Vignali Copyright (c) 2024 Italian Studies in South Africa http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0 2026-03-14 2026-03-14 37 2 74 91 https://italianstudiesinsa.org/ojs/index.php/issa/article/view/357 Among the intellectuals who covered the Giro d’Italia for newspapers, alongside Gatto, Pratolini, and Buzzati, there is also Anna Maria Ortese. In 1955, for the publication L'Europeo, the writer followed the sporting events with a disenchanted passion, producing pages that were later compiled in her travel writings. Completely unfamiliar with the sporting world, Ortese replaced the realism of journalistic reporting with landscape impressions, colours, and details, oscillating between lyricism and symbolism. Emotionally engaged yet detached, she selected what she observed and conveyed to the reader what lies behind the Giro d'Italia, creating an almost seamless fusion between humanity and nature. Eleonora Anselmo Copyright (c) 2024 Italian Studies in South Africa http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0 2026-03-14 2026-03-14 37 2 92 105 https://italianstudiesinsa.org/ojs/index.php/issa/article/view/358 The article highlights two bibliographic cards related to two writings by Anna Maria Ortese, both of which appeared on the pages of the sports weekly Il Campione in 1955, i.e. the year in which Ortese followed the Giro d'Italia with Marcello Venturi as a correspondent for L'Europeo. In particular, the contribution analyses the first text dedicated to Fausto Coppi. The champion's alternating sporting and personal events are interpreted by Ortese from a sociological perspective; in fact, the article denounces the irrationality of some opinions in the press, and above all the behaviour of the humbler classes, ready to deny what their idol was. Alberto Brambilla Copyright (c) 2024 Italian Studies in South Africa http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0 2026-03-14 2026-03-14 37 2 106 119