Transnational Emancipationism: Fanny Salazar Zampini’s Commitment to Women’s Liberation

Fanny Salazar Zampini was one of the first Italian intellectuals engaged in the battle for the emancipation of women at the end of the nineteenth century. Her political activism was intertwined with her personal life. Her family forced her to get married when she was only fifteen. Soon after, she was mistakenly diagnosed with hysteria and forced into isolation. Writing became her cure. She advocated against doctors who labeled women with intellectual curiosity and cultural ambitions as pathological. She became a writer, a journalist, and an activist as she traveled to Europe and to the United States. She connected and corresponded with Henry W. Longfellow, William R. Thayer, and Julia Ward Howe, who certainly helped her formulate her vision on women’s rights and emancipation.