(Self)Representations of Motherhood in Ada Negri’s Stella mattutina

by Ioana Raluca Larco

This article focuses on the figure of the mother as represented in Ada Negri’s autobiographical novel Stella mattutina (1921); such an image transgresses the patriarchal model of the passive and self-sacrificial woman-mother, so predominant in the 1800’s and the first half of the following century. Through feminist lenses (i.e., Jessica Benjamin, Luisa Muraro), I discuss how Negri restores here the mother’s subjectivity by depicting her also as an individual,