Abstract

The contribution focuses on "Il romanzo d'un maestro" of E. De Amicis in order to demonstrate how masterful novels are able to return to the reader the complex evolution of the figure and the role of the primary school female teacher in Italy in the nineteenth century, and to offer a meaningful picture of the process by which, during the first forty years of post-unification, the masterful female identity was determined and has managed to establish itself in the country.