A comprehensive collection of texts from the most influential and iconic figure of Italian second-wave feminism.
 
Recently rediscovered in Italy and abroad, the works of Carla Lonzi tend to fall under the remit of art history or feminist theory. Art historians focus on the texts written in the 1960s, when Lonzi was still actively working as a critic, whereas feminist scholars engage with her more openly political interventions, published after her declared embrace of a separatist feminism. In 1970 Lonzi decided to leave the art world for good and dedicate herself to her newly founded feminist collective, Rivolta Femminile. While recognizing the break in Lonzi’s life and work, this anthology maps the overall arc of her intellectual and political production, giving equal weight to her seminal contributions to art criticism and her trailblazing feminist writings. A comprehensive collection of texts from the most influential and iconic figure of Italian second-wave feminism, Feminism in Revolt seeks to shed light on Lonzi’s versatile approach to literary genres and compositions by juxtaposing essayistic texts, poems, diary excerpts, and manifestos.

Carla Lonzi was an Italian art critic and feminist activist. She is best known as the author of the experimental art book Autoritratto, and the cofounder of the political collective Rivolta Femminile. Luisa Lorenza Corna is an art and design historian. She is Leverhulme Fellow at Birkbeck University in London. Jamila M. H. Mascat is assistant professor of gender and postcolonial studies at Utrecht University. She is the author of Hegel a Jena. La critica dell’astrazione. Matthew Hyland is a writer, musician, and contributing editor of Mute magazine. Cristina Viti is a translator working with Italian, English, and French.
 

Editors’ Preface

Part I.
Leaving the Artworld (1962-1970) – Luisa Lorenza Corna
1. Writings on Art
- 15 Works by Lucio Fontana from 1946 to 1962 (1962)
- Carla Accardi (1964)
- Mario Nigro (1968)
- The Suprematism of Kazimir Malevic (1969)
2. The Solitude of the Critic (1963)
3. Self-portrait [selections] (1969)
4. Criticism is Power (1970)

Part II.
Leaving and Living (1970-1982) – Jamila M.H. Mascat
5. Let’s Spit on Hegel [selection] (1970)
6. A Letter to Pasolini (unpublished) (1975)
7. Myth of the Cultural Proposal [selection] (1977)
8. Itinerary of Reflections [selection] (1977)
9. Shut Up. Or Rather, Speak [selection] (1978)
10. Italian Identity (1981)
11. Now You Can Go: Dialogue with Piero Consagra [selection] (1980)
12. Calculated Check: Poems, 1958-1963 [selection] (1985)
13. I Am Armande! [selection] (1992)

Carla Lonzi (1930-1982). A Biobibliographical note