1860-1922. Unification ; Making and unmaking the nation ; Confessions of a women writer: Neera ; The sentimental democracy of Matilde Serao ; Taboo and transgression in Grazia Deledda ; Breaking the chain: Sibil Aleramo
1922-64. From fascism to reconstruction ; Portraits of a writer: Anna Banti ; Memory and melancholy in Natalia Ginzburg ; The deforming mirror: histories and friction in Elsa Morante ; 'Such stuff as dreams are made on': Anna Maria Ortese and the art of the real
1964-94. Revolution and reaction ; The silencing of women: the political aesthetic of Dacia Maraini ; Clytemnestra of Electra: renegotiating motherhood ; From feminism to post-modernism: Durante, Petrignani and Capriolo.