La Matriarca

“’The Willingness to Speak:’ Diane di Prima and Italian American Feminist Body Politics,” written by Rosanne Giannini Quinn, discusses Diane di Prima’s significance within the context of Italian American culture. Quinn highlights many pieces of di Prima as well as many movements that she was a part of. This article was written in 2003 for MELUS journal, which is published by The Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States. Quinn herself is an Italian American woman who is a feminist activist, which she mentions in the article, providing readers with a sense of why she felt so compelled to write about di Prima’s rarity. Overall, she argues that not only was Diane di Prima an influential writer of the Beat movement, but a pioneer for feminist writers, specifically within Italian American society.

Quinn begins by introducing di Prima’s variety of works and achievements before begging the question, “Why, then, has so little critical attention been paid to di Prima” (175)? She explains that much of the Beat movement was overpowered by male figures, but there is an added layer of tradition within Italian American society that often leads to the disregard of women writers of Italian descent. Quinn stresses how, traditionally, Italian Americans do not speak of the taboo subject of sex, let alone premarital sex. Di Prima, however, explicitly wrote about sex involving various genders, differing relationship statuses, and mixed nationalities. There is an emphasis on the shock factor behind di Prima’s choice to write about sex with non-Italians that Quinn wants her readers to grasp. To support this Quinn references data from sociologist Phyllis Martinelli. The data shows that when di Prima wrote these sexual poems in her collection titles Memoirs in 1969, 60% of Italian American marriages were endogamous (178). Marrying an Italian man was what Italian women were supposed to do; di Parma was simply not concerned with this. In addition to the importance of defying Italian American norms by writing about sex, Quinn also wants readers to understand that di Prima writing about herself at all went against Italian American tradition. Quinn argues that Italian women did not speak or write of themselves. They were told to be quiet and conversations involving their anatomy was discouraged because it made them imperfect. Rather, they are supposed to resemble the Virgin Mary as referenced by Quinn.

The idea of a woman speaking of her body and her experiences leads into Quinn’s section regarding di Prima’s influence on the Second Wave of feminism as well as the feminist movement as a whole. Quinn claims that for di Prima, “sexual liberation is freedom” (179) as seen in her second chapter of Memoirs and in her response poems to this chapter. However, Quinn argues that the epitome of di Prima’s artistry and feminist activism was in 1973 when she wrote Loba because it fully encapsulates her take on feminism and womanhood. The poems in this book are considered by Quinn to be very Italian, featuring Italian folklore and verbiage. They also continuously reference a sisterhood among women. To Quinn, this is important because di Prima’s work is shifting from writing about her own womanhood to writing about a universal experience of womanhood, creating community among herself and her readers.

Quinn concludes her article by stating that di Prima was a writer and activist beyond just the Beat movement. She inserted her voice into the 1960s movements regarding anti-war efforts, Civil Rights, Second Wave feminism, and LGBTQ+ rights. Quinn does highlight the high level of criticism di Prima received, a lot of which came from within the Italian American community. She finds Barbara Grizzuti Harrison’s opinion of di Prima’s work as self-indulgent to be disagreeable. Rather, she believes di Prima’s works to be indicative. Quinn’s argument is best concluded within the statement: “The beauty of di Prima’s body of work perhaps can be said to rest in the articulation of the moment or movement between correspondences: Italian and woman, Beat and feminist, revolutionary mother and literary foremother, and the politics of the avant garde” (189). Diane di Prima’s work, according to Quinn, has had a resounding effect on so many communities but has affected the intersectionality of Italian American tradition and feminism like no other.

As an Italian American woman, I greatly appreciated Quinn’s piece. Her explanation of how important tradition and familial values are to Italian American families provided historical background, while offering a sense of relatability for Italian American female readers. Quinn briefly mentioned the stigma her own family holds surrounding the use of the word “feminist,” which I find to be telling as to how important it is for Italian American families to hold on to patriarchal ideals from generation to generation. Most importantly, this article worked to cover numerous aspects and collections from di Prima’s career in a timeline manor, making it easy for the reader to follow along with even if they are only knowledgeable on one or two of her poems. Overall, Quinn’s article was very insightful and truly opened my eyes to the significance of Diane di Prima. Yet, I am left wondering what is truly so shocking and taboo about di Prima’s and other Beat poets’ pieces? Is the content of their poems genuinely shocking, or does the shock come from the fact that they are courageous enough to write out what us humans sometimes do not wish to acknowledge?

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