Against Emancipation and Revolution: Carla Lonzi’s Feminist Political Theory

As with other prominent schools of Italian thought, feminist thought emerged in Italy from the political experience within the student movement, which occupied the youth political scene since 1968. However, women quickly recognized that within these contexts, their participation was limited. Within the student movement, for instance, women perceived a creeping patriarchal attitude, in which males directed and decided while women had only auxiliary tasks. This prompted the development of a political practice known as separatism, a hallmark of Italian radical feminism during the 1970s. Women-only groups played a pivotal role in raising awareness about the political nature of their subordination. They also developed a distinctive approach to theorizing the political itself in terms that significantly differ from those of both Marxism and liberalism. The originality and radicality of Italian feminist thought has been often overlooked, when not forgotten. A prominent figure in the Italian feminist movement of the 1970s is Carla Lonzi, who previously worked as an art critic and then became a militant and theorist of the group Rivolta Femminile, which she founded. This chapter assesses her main philosophical and political findings, and by so doing aims to broaden and enrich the panorama of Italian Thought.