Portraits of female adolescents. A journey to self-discovery in the works of Anguissola, Reggiani, Pitzorno and Masini

Abstract

For Aidan Chambers (2020), adolescence is “the age between” evolving through the encounter of young readers with unexpected literary works. This research wishes to explore self-discovery as privileged point of view on adolescence, with female protagonists facing different forms of journeys in selected works by Giana Anguissola, Renée Reggiani, Bianca Pitzorno and Beatrice Masini. The analysis follows the protagonists’ evolution, but at the same time reflects on the socio-cultural context in Italy in the second half of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st (Boero, De Luca, 2009) together with the transformations of the concept of adolescence. The narrative choices of the authors communicate with potential adolescent readers that are invited to give their own answers to the questions posed by literary fiction.