ABSTRACT
Amongst the many methods of interpretation with which the Italian feminist experience in the 1970s can be analyzed, this chapter suggests possible partial reading using two aspects which seem to the author characteristic of both the beginning and the end of that decade: listening and silencing. It suggests that the impact of daily violence was at the origin of the increasing phenomenon of silence, of being speechless. This was a painful experience during the second half of the decade among feminist and non-feminist groups alike. The chapter refers to some examples which are relevant to both of these aspects, starting with an examination of the influential writings of Elvio Fachinelli, Luce Irigaray and Carla Lonzi on listening. As Roland Barthes suggested, by putting aside animal instinct and all rational and authoritarian temptations, a new and attractive innate dimension of this exercise of the senses emerged, which became widespread among political and consciousness-raising groups.
