Jhumpa Lahiri, Claudia Durastanti, Sheila Heti and Lou Stoppard in conversation on Alba de Céspedes, Miu Miu Literary Club, April 2024
What does it mean for a woman to find her own voice beyond her gendered roles as mother, spouse, housewife, worker? What Alba De Cespedes wrote in Forbidden Notebook, a gem of Italian 1950’s literature, is back at the centre of today’s debate on women’s identity and space in our society.
Introduction: Extract read by Tina Kunakey
Panelists: Jhumpa Lahiri, Claudia Durastanti, Sheila Heti. Moderated by Lou Stoppard.
Held at Circolo Filologico in Milan on 17 April 2024.
Miu Miu inaugural Literary Club, Writing Life, a two-day event, champions two landmark Italian titles: Aleramo’s Una Donna, first published in 1906, and De Céspedes’ Quaderno Proibito, published almost half a century later in 1952. Both works demonstrate the power of writing as a creative medium which, for centuries, has allowed women to express their thoughts, desires and ideologies, asserting their independence and inspiring their own and future generations to do the same.
