ABSTRACT
Focusing on the specific case of the female ancestors along the paternal lineage of the author’s family, this chapter investigates the silent female voice in the genealogy of great men (Italian Risorgimento heroes, Ministers), through diaries, letters, photographs, heirlooms and conversations with the author’s mother. This intimate and personal practice rests upon the author’s scholarly experience, rooted in a vast research on post-Soviet culture and the need for memory. The latter can be considered a shared feeling in the contemporary world and a trait of the current perception of time. Choosing as a starting point the contrast between the image of “holy mothers of the homeland” handed down from history and the feeling of secret sufferance and a great desire to act, the research collects materials concerning five generations of women: from the beginning of the 19th century to the author’s grandmother. The result is aimed at discussing possible models of family narration: an extraordinary path to building intergenerational dialogue and to recover a historical perspective in imagining the future. The dialogue between different generations of women will also contribute to recognize and accept the changing concepts of woman, family and time.
