Italian Risorgimento and Women’s Emancipation in the Memoirs of Clémentine de Como (1803-1871)
Risorgimento italiano e emancipazione della donna nelle memorie di Clémentine de Como (1803-1871)
Résumé
Between 1839 and 1871, the Provençal teacher Clémentine de Como lived in voluntary exile in Northern Italy, where she wrote – in French – her impressive autobiography entitled Émancipation de la femme, published in Turin in 1853. The author recounts her journey in the midst of the Italian war of independence, her 1848 participation in the Five Days of Milan and the maturation of her political and feminist consciousness. Seduced and exploited by the
poet Pietro Corelli, de Como describes her personal drama, fighting prejudice and denouncing women’s lack of rights. Her testimony was nonetheless derided by her contemporaries, remaining for a long time unknown.