Communism In Sibilla Aleramo's Una Donna Or A Woman

Communism and privacy are like oil and water; they do not mix. On the other hand Western Europe and the public eye are two peas in a pod. At the beginning of the twentieth centuries, Italian writer Sibilla Aleramo wrote Una Donna or A Woman very openly in hopes of making it clear that the issues that plagued women at the time needed to be made public. Slavenka Drakulic, a Yugoslav writer, wrote How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed very openly as well, however, she insisted that most of the events that took place in her piece should have been kept out of the public eye. While the west preferred sheer drapes on their everyday lives and feminists made that very obvious, the Eastern block seemed to wish they had thicker, darker curtains that were one of the main objectives for feminist groups. Their differences are deeper than just their upbringing and economic status; their feminist views differed and these views were brought on by the elements of their governments and daily life.

Though both women are feminists of the twentieth century, Aleramo and Drakulic definitely show distinct differences in their makeup. Sibilla Aleramo was born into a pretty “normal” family in Milano, Italy and received a fair amount of education. She “married” young, had a family, and suffered through a turbulent marriage. Aleramo went on to become one of Italy’s leading feminists and continued to write with an open mind about many everyday demons that women, in particular, faced.

On the other side of the Iron Curtain, Slavenka Drakulic was born in the former Yugoslavia, now Croatia, and was the daughter of a Communist party member. As a girl, she was privileged: she received a great education and had opportunities that other girls of her backgrou...

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...s experienced in her life truly outlines all the valuable things in her life like her accounts of watching her daughter grow up, remembering how her grandmother would hoard “useful” items, and her writing. Privacy for women like her was precious, and not until fairly recently, possible. Under a communist government, unlike a fascist government privacy was not a privilege. For Sibilla Aleramo who lived under fascist rule in Italy, privacy and private property were both permitted but were not necessarily essential to Aleramo. Her “valuable thing” she gained by giving up her privacy was a strong stance for western feminists who were tired of hiding and demanded a voice. Both women were strong, independent European feminist with two different preferences of “curtains”: dark curtains with plenty of privacy for Drakulic and sheer, airy drapes with a good view for Aleramo.