Italian and Italian American Studies Stanislao G. Pugliese Hofstra University Series Editor

Transcription

1 Italian and Italian American Studies Stanislao G. Pugliese Hofstra University Series Editor This publishing initiative seeks to bring the latest scholarship in Italian and Italian American history, literature, cinema, and cultural studies to a large audience of specialists, general readers, and students. I&IAS will feature works on modern Italy (Renaissance to the present) and Italian American culture and society by established scholars as well as new voices in the academy. This endeavor will help to shape the evolving fields of Italian and Italian American Studies by reemphasizing the connection between the two. The following editorial board of esteemed senior scholars are advisors to the series editor. REBECCA WEST JOHN A. DAVIS University of Chicago University of Connecticut FRED GARDAPHÉ PHILIP V. CANNISTRARO Stony Brook University Queens College and the Graduate School, CUNY JOSEPHINE GATTUSO HENDIN VICTORIA DeGRAZIA New York University Columbia University Queer Italia: Same-Sex Desire in Italian Literature and Film edited by Gary P. Cestaro July 2004 Frank Sinatra: History, Identity, and Italian American Culture edited by Stanislao G. Pugliese October 2004 The Legacy of Primo Levi edited by Stanislao G. Pugliese December 2004 Italian Colonialism edited by Ruth Ben-Ghiat and Mia Fuller July 2005 Mussolini's Rome: Rebuilding the Eternal City Borden W. Painter Jr. July 2005 Representing Sacco and Vanzetti edited by Jerome H. Delamater and Mary Anne Trasciatti September 2005 Carlo Tresca: Portrait of a Rebel Nunzio Pernicone October 2005 Italy in the Age of Pinocchio: Children and Danger in the Liberal Era Carl Ipsen April 2006

2 The Empire of Stereotypes: Germaine de Staël and the Idea of Italy Robert Casillo May 2006 Race and the Nation in Liberal Italy, : Meridionalism, Empire, and Diaspora Aliza S. Wong October 2006 Women in Italy, : An Interdisciplinary Study edited by Penelope Morris October 2006 A New Guide to Italian Cinema Carlo Celli and Marga Cottino-Jones November 2006 Debating Divorce in Italy: Marriage and the Making of Modern Italians, Mark Seymour December 2006

3 Debating Divorce in Italy Marriage and the Making of Modern Italians, Mark Seymour

4 DEBATING DIVORCE IN ITALY Mark Seymour, 2006 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. First published in 2006 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y and Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, England RG21 6XS Companies and representatives throughout the world. PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin s Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN ISBN (ebook) DOI / Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available from the Library of Congress. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India. First edition: December

5 For John and Sylvia Seymour

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7 Contents Acknowledgments ix Introduction: Patria, Famiglia, Libertà! 1 1 Making Italians: Marriage and the Family in United Italy, Unmaking Marriage? The First Proposals for a Divorce Law, Divorce Italian Style? Marriage Breakdown, Real Italy versus Legal Italy: Catholic Mobilization, Conservative Traditions, and Divorce, Divorce between Liberalism and Socialism, From the Failure of Reform to the Lateran Pacts, Remaking Italians? From Fascism to the Republic, Loris Fortuna and the Divorzisti, Let the People Decide, Conclusion: Divorcing Tradition 223 Notes 231 Bibliography 267 Index 283

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9 Acknowledgments A long time ago now, at the University of Sydney, Robert Aldrich introduced me to the pleasures of history. During the same period, several wonderful lecturers in that university s Department of Italian, including Nerida Newbigin and Paola Marmini, introduced me to the pleasures of Italy. The eventual marriage of those two pleasures led, circuitously, to this book. I would like to express my enduring gratitude to those inspiring early teachers, and also to Peter Briggs, who encouraged me to begin to study, and showed me how it was done. Since then, many people and institutions have helped me with the work that lies behind these pages. At the University of Connecticut, it was my great privilege to work with John A. Davis, who supervised my doctoral research with exemplary knowledge, rigor, and care. I would like to record my thanks to the other members of my supervisory committee, Peter Bergman, Ronald Coons, and particularly Mary Gibson (of the City University of New York), who generously agreed to be an outside reader, and has been very supportive ever since. Special thanks also to Bill Hoglund, Martha McCormick, and Thomas Deshaies, who all smoothed my path in innumerable ways. I am grateful to the Emiliana Pasca Noether Chair, the James M. Bozzuto Foundation, and the Department of History at the University of Connecticut for their generous financial support, as well as to the Society for Italian Historical Studies, which awarded me a prize at a time when I was particularly in need of encouragement. My debts in Italy are extensive. I would like to thank Borden Painter, Livio Pestilli, and my colleagues at Trinity College s Rome Campus for providing a uniquely congenial setting for my early research. Many librarians and archivists in Rome, Florence, Naples, and Venice helped me in ways that epitomized Italian warmth and generosity, often under trying conditions. I would like to acknowledge the particular efforts of Pina Nuzzo, Marisa Ombra, and Claudia Mattia of the Unione Donne in Italia (Rome), and Giovanna Olivieri of the Casa Internazionale delle Donne (Rome). Special thanks to Virginia Jewiss, Nino Gualdoni, and Ivana Rinaldi, for accommodation in Rome; to Angiolo Bandinelli, former Radical Party deputy, and

10 x ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Adele Cambria, journalist and author, for their time and insights; to Domenico Rizzo, for answering endless questions about Italian legal procedures; and to Marco Chighine, for invaluable research assistance. The Department of History at the University of Otago has provided a wonderful environment in which to complete this book. In addition to the support, advice, and companionship of my generous colleagues, I would like to acknowledge a University of Otago Research Grant, which supported the last stage of the research; assistance from the department s research funds; and a reduced teaching load in the first semester of The Otago interlibrary loan staff proved that distance is no impediment to research, and I am very appreciative of their work. Various people have read all or parts of the manuscript during its preparation. These include Alex De Grand, Mary Gibson, Robert Aldrich, Nicky Page, Sue Burton, Ali Clarke and Barbara Brookes. I am very grateful to all of them, for they saved me from many errors and infelicities I take full responsibility for those that remain. I would also like to acknowledge Palgrave Macmillan s efficient team in New York, and the painstaking efforts of the production office in Chennai. Finally, I would like to express deep appreciation to my families and the many steadfast friends, who, over long periods in Australia, the United States, Italy, and New Zealand, have provided the sense of community, belonging, and love that not even the most nomadic individualist can do without. Dunedin, New Zealand August 2006