As a concept, citizenship has expanded from the time of Plato’s utopian model to include each generation’s expectations of citizenry. Therefore, citizenship ought to be categorized by a responsive quality, and a good citizen should be considered one who reacts to a contemporary problem by giving an example on how it should be fixed for the next generation. Elisabetta Caminer Turra serves as a model of this version of citizenship through her work as one of the first female newspaper editors and journalists in Italy. From her early days as a translator to her final days as a full-fledged editor, Elisabetta Caminer Turra worked with materials that sparked intellectual debate in the hope of inciting change, particularly in the female community. As a staunch supporter of education for women, Caminer’s biggest contribution was her critique on fashion magazines that emerged during her tenure for derailing the intellectual development of women. While these critiques failed to end the fashion trends, they reveal that Elisabetta Caminer Turra responded to what she believed to be contemporary problems, making her the ideal model for a responsive citizen. Moreover, by responding in depth to issues about women, Caminer Turra unintentionally became a part of a pre-feminist movement.
From the beginning of her career, Caminer was not content with playing a minor role, and she fought to rise in the ranks of the literary community even though gender stereotypes painted her in a negative light. Elisabetta Caminer was destined for the dressmaking business, but promptly left after she discovered her passion for literature, teaching herself how to read.[1] Her first poem in 1763 celebrated the noblewoman from Venice.[2] This topic choice suggests that Caminer was responding to her own position as a woman and more importantly as an untraditional woman. By writing about the previous generation of Venetian women, Caminer hoped not only to bolster the reputation of her gender but also to educate other contemporary women. Following her brief stint in poetry, Caminer turned to translations, mainly from French into Italian of philosophers like Voltaire.[3] Translations served as the threshold for women to enter the literary community while contributing to the education of society.[4] As a self-taught woman, Caminer wanted to provide Italian women with material in their own language in order to help them escape their perpetual naiveté. While Caminer translated works in order to earn a living, she had a choice in the type of materials that she would work with. She used this freedom of choice to translate works from other European female writers on the concept of femininity in order to “deconstruct them with a view to challenging traditional stereotypes and carving out a new position for women in the gender hierarchy of European society.”[5] In this instance, Caminer acted as a good citizen by publicly responding and drawing attention to the lack of inclusion of women in the intellectual sphere.
Following her work as a translator, Elisabetta Caminer became a journalist and then the main director for her father’s newspaper where she continued to behave as the responsive citizen by displaying and analyzing emerging events. Before she became the official director, Caminer moved from Venice to Vicenza with her husband. Despite her move and marriage, she refuses to give up her career and continues to edit a majority of the articles of her father’s paper. The fact that Caminer does not abandon her ideals reveals her dedication to the education of the citizens of Venice. Moreover, she personally changed the name of the journal from Europa letteraria to Giornale Enciclopedico in order to expand the subjects it could cover and to make it more universally read.[6] Again, Caminer responds to the emerging French Enlightenment style of writing, allowing Venice to keep up with the times. Within the expanded publication, Caminer Turra dedicated a considerable amount of space to a critique of contemporary society for its discrimination of women in education and marriage.[7] These clear distinctions between men and women emerged as a result of the Enlightenment, so Caminer Turra’s consistent articles on femininity not only reacted to contemporary issues but also created a space where these issues could be addressed and fixed. Like the responsive citizen of my definition, Caminer displayed both awareness and a desire for change that keeps the fluidity necessary for good citizenship.
In order to extend educational citizenship to women, Caminer lamented the emergence of fashion magazine, believing them to encourage women to obtain only a mediocre level of intelligence. During the Enlightenment, fashion magazines emerged as a unique genre for the group of women that were gaining literacy, starting in France and spreading to Milan and Venice. For Caminer, these periodicals kept women involved in fleeting moments of admiration rather than intellectual development. These magazines made women obsessed with the way they looked rather than their actual thoughts. For Caminer women “renounce [their] own portion of talent and common sense in order to receive a frivolous exchange of apparent homages, ill-founded praises, dangerous adulations and futile bonds which keep us ever more bound in slavery.”[8] In this passage, Caminer criticizes the women that play into this new industry for allowing men to maintain their power over women through complements.[9] By critiquing the women themselves rather than the actual periodicals, Caminer is urging for women to be the catalysts for change, an argument that contemporary feminists use today. It is this encouragement and call for change that makes Caminer the ideal citizen. Not only is she aware of what needs to change in her society, but she also attempts, through her writing, to bring about change for later generations and to include her contemporary citizens in the movement.
Her harsh critiques of the fashion magazines and the women who read them fail to acknowledge some of the benefits these provided for women as they gained acceptance as citizens. During her time, female literacy and female reading materials were just beginning to increase in quantity. While Caminer found her entry point in translation, most women had to rely upon fashion magazines, which were simple and targeted towards them, for reading materials. According to Aristotle’s model of citizenship, people need to be involved in or have a share in an organization or government in order to care.[10] Most noble and middle class women who were able to read tended to care more about fashion and looks since their education was minimal. Therefore, reading the fashion periodicals and writing for the “toilette” was their way of participating in both literature and the economy. Caminer should not discount fashion periodicals entirely because they are below her personal education level. Rather, she should acknowledge their ability in getting women at least slightly more involved in society.
In conclusion, Elisabetta Caminer Turra exhibits the qualities every contemporary citizen should strive for. As a self-educated woman with a familial connection to the literary world, Caminer used her position to respond directly to the problems facing her society. In bringing news from around Europe to Venice, she contributed to the cultural and intellectual advancement of her fellow citizens. More importantly, she focused on an issue that stood out to her as particularly troublesome – the discrimination of women – and provided analyses to incite change. While her critiques did not directly lead to tangible changes, they did force her contemporaries to think about their society and where it ought to go in the future. By being aware of her situation, she allowed others to reflect and respond on theirs.
[1] “Elisabetta Caminer Turra and the ‘Giornale Enciclopedico’” in Venice: gender consciuosness (conciousness) and Enlightenment between periodical literature and letters, women.it, accessed on September 22, 2014, ttp://www.women.it/4thfemconf/workshops/european9/mariagraziaruggerini.htm.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Marianna D’Ezio, “Italian Women Intellectuals and Their Cultural Networks: The Making of a European ‘Life of Mind,’” in Political Ideas of Enlightenment Women, ed. Lisa Curtis-Wendlandt, Paul Gibbard, and Karen Green (Great Britain: Ashgate Publishing Limited, 2013), 116.
[5] Ibid.
[6] “Elisabetta Caminer Turra and the “Giornale Enciclopedico” in Venice: gender consciuosness (conciousness) and Enlightenment between periodical literature and letters.”
[7] Ibid.
[8] Giornale enciclopedico (January 1777) quoted in Sama, Catherine M., “Liberty, Equality, Frivolity! An Italian Critique of Fashion Periodicals,”Eighteenth-Century Studies 37, no.3 (2004).
[9] Sama, Catherine M., “Liberty, Equality, Frivolity! An Italian Critique of Fashion Periodicals,”Eighteenth-Century Studies 37, no.3 (2004).
[10] Aristotle, Politics (Indianapolis, Indiana: Hackett Publications, 1998).
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Marianna D’Ezio, “Italian Women Intellectuals and Their Cultural Networks: The Making of a European ‘Life of Mind,’” in Political Ideas of Enlightenment Women, ed. Lisa Curtis-Wendlandt, Paul Gibbard, and Karen Green (Great Britain: Ashgate Publishing Limited, 2013), 116.
[5] Ibid.
[6] “Elisabetta Caminer Turra and the “Giornale Enciclopedico” in Venice: gender consciuosness (conciousness) and Enlightenment between periodical literature and letters.”
[7] Ibid.
[8] Giornale enciclopedico (January 1777) quoted in Sama, Catherine M., “Liberty, Equality, Frivolity! An Italian Critique of Fashion Periodicals,”Eighteenth-Century Studies 37, no.3 (2004).
[9] Sama, Catherine M., “Liberty, Equality, Frivolity! An Italian Critique of Fashion Periodicals,”Eighteenth-Century Studies 37, no.3 (2004).
[10] Aristotle, Politics (Indianapolis, Indiana: Hackett Publications, 1998).