Le adolescenti sole nella narrativa di Grazia Deledda

Abstract

I analyze a large sample of the stories that Grazia Deledda devoted to young women under the age of 16, who came from poor families or did not have one, struggled to support themselves, and were at risk of being sexually abused by adults, mainly in their workplaces. By comparing the ideas expressed by the Italian penal code of that time, the traditionalist opinions of most characters in those stories and Deledda’s moderately innovative views, I show how different sensitivities contributed to shape the idea of child sexual abuse before the expression was created, in the fast-changing post-unification Italian society.