Memoria, une revue féministe pionnière (1981-1993)

Abstract

This article traces the legitimisation process of a feminist journal dedicated to women’s history and based at the Basso Foundation in Rome. This represented a challenge in Italian academic circles at the time, on account of the deliberate choice of the feminist label and the affirmation of the non-mixed editorial board. The historians who founded it served their political apprenticeship in the social movements and neo-feminism of the 1968s. Memoria maintained its principles and organisation (editorial and authorship of articles attributed to the collective, unsigned) for a decade. The journal was open to transnational exchanges, particularly with French and American researchers, and, as early as 1981, developed the concept of “gender identity”. The editorial board wanted to act as an interface between feminist groups or centres and the academic research community and invested in training in the history of women, teachers, students, workers and employees. While microstoria was developing in the field of history, the founders of Memoria, mindful of subjectivity, thought of themselves as subject and object of research and sought to vary the scales of analysis. The journal ceased publication at a time when political and social struggles were on the decline and feminist movements gradually regressing.

Keywords

• feminism
• women’s history
• transnational exchanges
• gender identity
• scales of analysis
• magazines