(UN)SUITABLE JOBS: FEMALE DETECTIVES IN EARLY TWENTIETH-CENTURY ITALIAN LITERATURE

Scholars have consistently neglected early twentieth-century Italian crime fiction, dismissing its manifestations as aesthetically worthless and ideologically conservative. The female investigator, I contend, represents instead an extremely anomalous, defiant figure that questions and challenges deep-seated assumptions concerning womanhood and the relationship between women, society, and the work force. The present article analyzes this strictly understudied literary figure within a series of texts published in the years that immediately preceded the outbreak of the First World War. After an historical contextualization, I will focus on two novels written by popular writer Carolina Invernizio – Nina, la poliziotta dilettante (1909) and Lara, l’avventuriera (1910) – in order to explore the ways in which intertwining ideas of femininity and professionalism were perceived, discussed, and negotiated at the time. This essay, ultimately, questions the apparently comforting and un-subversive character of the detective story, bringing to light an array of obscure and forgotten texts that help not only to broaden the canon of early Italian crime fiction but also to re-think the form as potentially challenging and problematic.