The purpose of this dissertation is to conduct a study of the history of the girls’ magazine Cordelia (1881–1942), founded in Florence by Angelo De Gubernatis. The analysis mainly focuses on the years 1881–1917; however, the latter period is also briefly treated. The theoretical framework consists of sociology of literature and gender history; the dissertation belongs to the field of history of publishing, which is integrated with a gender historical perspective. The methodological challenges faced when dealing with periodicals as research objects are also considered. In order to achieve bibliographic control and examine Cordelia’s contents and contributors, all issues of the magazine’s first 36 years were indexed. The study examines the commercial strategies of the magazine’s publishers, as well as the contributions of the chief editors and writers involved in the making of the magazine. Attention is drawn to the personal relationships between the individuals in these groups. As is shown, the magazine was not very successful in its first three years of publication, during the editorship of De Gubernatis. The two editors who followed, Ida Baccini and Jolanda (pseudonym for Maria Maiocchi Plattis), did succeed, however, in creating a familiar and attractive product for the young female public and to involve them in their magazine. Quantitative surveys of the contributors and contents have shown, for instance, that Baccini and Jolanda relied on regular contributions from relatively few writers and also published serial fiction to arouse the readers’ interest. Their comprehension of the potential of the periodical and the importance of their gender in addressing their readers, together with the capacity of long-time publisher Cappelli to develop commercial strategies to boost sales, seem to have been the reason for the longevity and success of Cordelia.

À partir des années soixante-dix les femmes poètes s'affirment avec énergie dans le panorama littéraire italien. Bien que leur présence dans les anthologies les plus reconnues soit encore assez réduite, leurs écritures poétiques se caractérisent par une puissante originalité. L'objectif de cette thèse est d'étudier ces productions poétiques tout en s'interrogeant sur la possibilité d'identifier des éléments communs. Il ne s'agit pas de définir une spécificité féminine dans une perspective essentialiste, mais d'interpréter certaines données textuelles en se référant à un contexte historique et culturel bien défini. Le corpus de travail comprends les œuvres des femmes poètes suivantes: Amelia Rosselli (1930-1996), Alda Merini (1931), Jolanda Insana (1937), Patrizia Cavalli (1947) et Patrizia Valduga (1953). Afin de respecter les singularités de chaque écriture poétique et d’éviter des simplifications réductrices, nous avons accordé la priorité à l'analyse textuelle et organisé les chapitres selon une approche monographique plutôt que thématique. L'analyse révèle que ces femmes poètes abordent avec obstination trois nœuds problématiques: elles développent une réflexion sur la valeur de la langue poétique, ont tendance à structurer leur poésie autour d'oppositions fortes et irréductibles, et, enfin, font souvent appel à des éléments de type théâtral. Ces caractéristiques sont interprétées en considérant le rapport ambigu et contradictoire que le sujet féminin entretient avec le code poétique: il ressent un fort besoin d'inscription dans la langue poétique, mais aussi un sens d'extranéité. Cette tradition qui lui est chère ne lui appartient pas complètement car il a été exclu de son élaboration. / As from the seventies women poets assert themselves with energy in the Italian literary survey. Even if their presence in the most famous anthologies is curtailed, their poetic writings are characterized by a powerful originality. The aim of this thesis is to study their poetic production inquiring into the possibility of common elements. It’s not about defining a female specificity from an essentialist point of view, the purpose is rather to interpret some textual data with reference to a well-defined historical and cultural context. The study corpus includes works of the following Italian woman poets: Amelia Rosselli (1930-1996), Alda Merini (1931), Jolanda Insana (1937), Patrizia Cavalli (1947) and Patrizia Valduga (1953). In order to respect the particularities of every writing and to avoid hasty and restrictive simplifications, a great importance has been conferred to the textual analysis and the chapters have been arranged according to a monographic approach rather than a thematic structure. The result of the research demonstrates that contemporary Italian women poets attend insistently three knotty problems: they develop a reflection about the power of poetic language, they display a tendency to structure their verse on strong oppositions without appeasing synthesis and they often resort to dramatic elements. These characteristics can be interpreted referring to the double and conflicting position of the female subject towards poetic code: this new subject needs to inscribe himself in the poetic language, but he also feels a sense of extraneousness. The tradition he loves doesn’t belong completely to him as he was left out of its elaboration.