Alliance and Sorellanza in Matilde Serao’s Il romanzo della fanciulla

This contribution analyzes the ways nineteenth-century Italian writer Matilde Serao portrays female alliance and sorellanza (sisterhood) in two short stories featured in Il romanzo della fanciulla (1885; Unmarried Women). While the collection is remarkable for the way it features an array of women’s perspectives and experiences living in nineteenth-century Naples, the two stories in question are particularly noteworthy for their salient depictions of friendship and sisterhood. Through textual analysis, I argue that Serao’s portrayal of female bonding and sorellanza functions to subvert the social institutions of the school and workplace. Although Serao’s own solidarity with women has been questioned, these stories demonstrate how female friendship acts as a medium of empathy and change through which women can become emancipated and achieve agency.