Emanuele Ricucci has accustomed us to the figure of the brilliant, direct and irreverent pamphlettist, capable of hitting the ideologies and customs of a flawed time like ours in no uncertain terms. With his latest book, Revolutionary (Edizioni Archeoares, p.120), however, has undertaken a more intimate and profound path, dedicated to extraordinary female figures. While changing the field of action, however, it maintains the valiant section intact that characterizes all its works. On this occasion, he does not limit himself to tracing the biographical contours of the protagonists – who do not remain in the background as a frame – but re -reads them with an original look, returning them a voice that challenges time and clichés.
The women told by Ricucci are very different figures among them – among others also a philosopher, a musician, a painter – attached as revolutionary protagonists of their time. Some, like Matilde Serao (journalist, writer and entrepreneur, founder of newspapers The morning And Day), are familiar to the reader; Others, coming from more distant eras, resonate with names perhaps forgotten such as Marzia degli Ubaldini (commander of armies), Anna Maria Luisa de ‘Medici (last descendant of the doctors, custodian of the artistic heritage of her family), Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia (first woman graduated in the world, although the question remains controversial), proper of the Rossi (sculptor and engraving), Francesca), Francesca) Caccini (composer and soprano), Sofonisba Anguissola (International Renaissance Painter).
Every woman, more than a historical character to be analyzed in her strengths and weaknesses, becomes a living presence, capable of still speaking to the reader’s heart. The book initially appears as a tribute, but soon a profound rediscovery is revealed, a maieutic act that tries to bring out meanings that go beyond a simple feminist claim. Ricucci invites us to look beyond the veil of the politically correct, which too often empties the speeches on women’s rights and, instead of demolishing them at the root, creates further watertight compartments and divisions.
The protagonists did not need slogans. They lived, chosen, fought in difficult historical contexts and in hostile eras to freedom. Yet, precisely in those moments, they affirmed their individuality forcefully, leaving an indelible imprint in culture, society and collective memory. They were not cover heroines – many of them are little known today – but real, complex and often unheeded women. Ricucci brings them back to the center, with a passionate and rhetoric -free style.
The result is a surprising choral portrait, capable of inspiring reflection and admiration for these life paths where the past becomes present and the female emerges as a generating force, able to guide the future. A book that is together memory, political act and gesture of love because the women of whom Ricucci tells the story not only have challenged the social conventions, but also had the strength to emerge in their respective areas, demonstrating rare independence. Their ability to coexist with the difficulties of the time, without bending to the limits imposed by society, is an extraordinary testimony of strength and determination, long before these concepts were incorporated by the rigidity of neo -feminist ideology. Although their activities were not infrequently considered outside the canons, they managed to conquer their space, breaking the expectations of their time.
Does it make sense, then, to go back in time in search of forgotten stories, which have nothing to do with current problems? I think so. Today we are often accused of lacking historical memory and not recognizing the responsibility of what has been built over the centuries. In this sense, the reflection proposed by Ricucci is particularly relevant. It is not just about telling single events, but of drawing a precious starting point from these experiences.
The relationships that these women have had with their social and historical context derive from individual sensitivity and free aspirations from ideological background. The struggle to emerge from conditions of minority, while changing according to the place and time, is a universal theme. Their approach, far from any ideological rhetoric, enriches us and helps us to better understand the present, without reducing man to an opponent to crush.