'"Voci": una rilettura contestualizzante'

Abstract

I have identified four main narratives of child sexual abuse in Italian literature in the period 1903-2015. The one used by Maraini from 1990, and later adopted by other authors, was the most common at the end of the 20th century. It speaks about child abuse explicitly and represents it as a paradigmatic example of violence against women in a patriarchal society. Maraini understands the damage suffered by the victims and is sympathetic to them, but avoids their disconsolate views. My analysis shows how demanding the creation of this narrative was because previous narratives (Moravia’s in particular), while allowing the discussion of this subject, also constrained it. I also suggest that this narrative can have constraining effects on new, emerging ways to tell stories of child sexual abuse.