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(You can find it here on the Ploughshares blog.)
Mariateresa Di Lascia finished writing her magnum opus, Passaggio in ombra, 25 years ago this year -- meaning she could have no notion of #MeToo.
Indeed, as I mention in my essay, she wrote the novel "long before the words “me too” meant anything other than “ditto.” But I see the book as incredibly pertinent to the way our society is finally grappling with how a woman’s life is often marked by an endless series of hidden indignities that mar and distort. While the prose may at times have an antiquated bent, the crushing double standards dished out to the novel’s heroines are disturbingly familiar."
I use the character of Giuppina as one of the more salient examples; she is raped and forced to give up her child. "Who rapes her?" I wrote. "A friend of her father’s. A friend. She’s a fictional character yet that description gives me the chills. This is a moment where the trauma women experience is finally coming to light. And this is a novel where the trauma women experience forms the backbone of the narrative."
This little book published 25 years ago is seeded with little incidents such that all kinds of crimes against women are hidden in plain sight.
As I mention in the Ploughshares piece, that tells me the value of exploring older books to see what they can tell us—to see what they have been telling us all along, whether we realized it or not.
How long do we need to know something before the urge to act on this knowledge bursts upon us?
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