Suicidio e autocensura nelle traduzioni italiane dei Frauenromane

Among the German novels that crossed into Italy during the Twenties and the Thirties, the Frauenromane, novels written by and addressed to women, provided a new conception of femininity, the weimarian Neue Frau, imbued with emancipation and independence. The regime managed to impede the free circulation of some of these books, in sharp contrast with the conception of the ideal woman endorsed by Fascist ideology. One of the most embarrassing subjects – abortion, emancipation of women – was the suicide, considered immoral and dangerous for its emulative risk. Through the practice of self-censorship, publishers and translators safeguarded themselves against the risk of sequestration and removed from the texts those elements that would have meet with the opposition of the regime. Before the Frauenromane reached their readers, they had been largely cleared of the most daring choices of the weimarian heroines.