Anatomy of patriarchy

This article explores how the dynamics of patriarchal domination are exposed in the works of Maria Messina. In her narratives, Messina reveals the less obvious manifestations of patriarchal power and establishes a correlation between the exploitative, oppressive, and violent nature of the patriarchal system and the relentless pursuit of wealth accumulation in a mainly rural, proto-capitalist society, such as Italy – Sicily in particular – was in the early twentieth century. Building on recent scholarship that challenges reductive definitions of Messina as ‘Verga’s pupil’ or ‘the Sicilian Mansfield’, the article then discusses Messina’s position as a female writer in relation to her literary forefathers and in relation to the feminist movement. While her narratives are not overtly feminist, they provide a compelling critique of the symbolic order and power structures that condone violence against women, thus placing Messina among those twentieth-century female writers who open up the possibility for a post-patriarchal concept of the human to emerge. This article was published open access under a CC BY-ND licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/ .