“Prego, signorina”. La rappresentazione della maestra nella letteratura e nel cinema: da Maria Messina ad Alberto Lattuada

Abstract

This article aspires to open a new prospective of study on the figure of the schoolmistress in the first half of the Italian twentieth century. The essay focuses on three lesser-known narrative works (two by women writers), with a look at two movies of the 1940s and 1950s. The study offers a thematic analysis on the character of the schoolmistress, who is not always adequately recognized and analysed. In the first part, a group of three short stories is analysed: Maria Messina’s L’ora che passa (1911) revolves around an emptied and disillusioned teacher, Rosalia, who has not found the means to emancipate herself in her profession; Ada Negri’s Anima bianca (1917) instead presents a teacher, Rosanna, fully realized in her role to the point of letting herself die when an event undermines her ability to teach; finally, Federigo Tozzi’s Un’osteria (1920) opens a contemporary debate on the suffering of those teachers, like Assunta, forced to work far from home. In the second part of the essay the discussion shifts to cinema: Vittorio De Sica’s Maddalena ... zero in condotta (1940) is the parable of the teacher Elisa Malgari, who has to learn the most important lesson: letting herself be loved by a man. Finally, Alberto Lattuada’s Scuola elementare (1954) opens a glimpse into the crisis of the substitute teacher Laura Bramati in search of her true professional identity.