Ippolito Nievo’s Pisana and Goliarda Sapienza’s Modesta: Female Heroism as a Challenge to Gendered Configurations of the Nation

ABSTRACT This article draws a parallel between Ippolito Nievo’s Pisana in Le confessioni d’un italiano (1867) and Modesta, the protagonist of Goliarda Sapienza’s L’arte della gioia (1998). It argues that, in the characterization of these two exceptional figures, female heroism emerges as a radical rebellion against the role imposed on women by nationalist discourses of their time. Both Modesta and Pisana stand as rebellious heroines, fundamentally different from the traditional angelic/seductress dyad as well as from the position of victims. They unsettle sanctioned patterns of morality and social roles, calling into question the values that inform women’s sense of national belonging. This article also points out a significant difference between the two novels: while Nievo, like most critics, condemns Pisana’s ‘selfish’ behaviour and ultimately involves her in the ideal of national identity, Sapienza never questions the rebelliousness of Modesta, who, unlike Pisana, is finally entrusted with the narration of her own story.