After the Second World War, two contrasting political movements became increasingly active in Italy - the communist and feminist movements. In this book, Walter Baroni uses autobiographical life-writing from both movements key protagonists to shed new light on the history of these movements and more broadly the similarities and differences between political activists in post-war Italy.

Walter S. Baroni is Marie Curie Post-Doctoral Fellow in the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures at the University of Manchester, UK.

Chapter 1. Institutional Communist Autobiographies, 1944-1956: Administrative Identification and Narrative Identity
1.1 Communist Autobiographies: Origins
1.2 The Italian Way to Autobiographical Control: Elements of context
1.3 The communist autobiography: plot and story
Chapter 2. Feminist Self-enunciation: Between Silence and Infinite Speech
2.1. The paradox of emancipation and its autobiographical strategies
2.2 Paranoia: The infinite discourse
2.3 Schizophrenia and catatonia: Poetry, dreams and discursive hesitations
Chapter 3. The remains of two traditions: Institutional monuments and impossible mourning
3.1 After the end: The collapse of communism and the self-narrative
3.2 Late feminist autobiographies: The journey towards legitimacy and normality
3.3 Echoes of the origins: The autobiographies of Giorgio Napolitano and Laura Lepetit