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What Do Mothers Want? Takes on Motherhood in Bellissima, Il Grido, and Mamma Roma

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Part of the book series: Italian and Italian American Studies ((IIAS))

Abstract

This paper examines the representation of mothers in three films of the I period, Bellissima (Visconti, 1951), Il Grido (Antonioni, 1957) and Mamma Roma (Pasolini, 1962). On a strict chronological reckoning Mamma Roma falls outside the actual period of study, but if “the fifties” is taken to signify the ongoing concerns of a particular cultural milieu, the film’s preoccupations, and the role it assigns to its maternal figure make it more easily assimiliable to the major concerns of that decade than to the shifts of the sixties.

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© 2006 Penelope Morris

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Caldwell, L. (2006). What Do Mothers Want? Takes on Motherhood in Bellissima, Il Grido, and Mamma Roma. In: Morris, P. (eds) Women in Italy, 1945–1960: An Interdisciplinary Study. Italian and Italian American Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230601437_15

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230601437_15

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-349-53260-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-0-230-60143-7

  • eBook Packages: Palgrave History CollectionHistory (R0)

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