"Teachers' bulletin", vol. 4- issued as part of v. 23, no. 9-

2. Redefining the New Woman, 1920-1963 Despite the fact that women's suffrage did not produce the catastrophic consequences predicted, mainstream opposition to the feminist movement refused to die, as exemplified in commentaries by industrialist Henry Ford, renowned literary figures D.H. Lawrence and Norman Mailer, and even presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson, all represented in this volume. The other selections first focus on sources published during the interwar years and indicate that the legacy of progressive social feminism exacerbated reactionary attitudes toward women in the context of postwar political fundamentalism, the Great Depression, and the New Deal. The second part contains literature that appeared between 1941 and 1963, and reflects the ambivalence and backlash toward wives and mothers in the workforce and the public sphere, driven by the social, political, and economic conservatism of the Cold War Era.

The Tigress in the Snow explores how literature reacted to, influenced, and shaped the evolving notion of motherhood in twentieth-century Italy. From the late-nineteenth century rhetorical celebration of the mother as Madonna, to the Fascist regime's demographic campaign and feminist revisions of the maternal role, Laura Benedetti shows how the mother's social status was a site of constant negotiation in Italy during the last century and how this negotiation came to be represented in literature. To illustrate her theme, she stresses both similarities and differences among four generations of women writers, as well as their complex interaction with their male counterparts, and their reactions to changes in Italian society. The Tigress in the Snow highlights literature's role in the formation of cultural discourses right up to the dawn of the twenty-first century. An intriguing look at the changing nature of motherhood in a country that has always valued the maternal institution, this volume goes further to show how literature investigates, shapes, and envisions social models for the present and future.