Dalla scuola storica alla scuola normale. Maria Romano tra ricerca scientifica e drammatizzazione della storia nazionale

From the “scuola storica” to the “scuola normale”. Maria Romano Caught Between Scientific Research and the Dramatic Representation of the Nation’s History.
With a degree in Literature in 1892 from Turin University, Maria Romano was enrolled in a female Teacher Training School. Her patriotic work during the Great War provided her with an opportunity to pursue a didactic proposal centered around the storiographic canon she had acquired. She used this to vehicle, through the theatre, a gender reading of Italian history, where the King was the father of the nation, composed of soldiers, exiles, volunteers and women. Her writings describe the war as well as medieval events, albeit strongly tainted with events of the times. Romano continually focuses on gender roles and, together with her students who acted out these parts, she elaborated a 19th century gendered nation in keeping with the Risorgimento. tradition to which she was closely tied. All throughout the war Romano and her students received letters from soldiers at the front. These were used as a source by Romano and transposed into her theatrical writings, providing an original representation of women at war.