Una critica del cuore: la controversa vicenda degli studi su Charlotte Perkins Gilman

The early part of the essay focuses on the dramatic change in the critical status of Charlotte Perkins Gilman, a major point of reference for feminist criticism through the 1970s and 1980s, who later became the target of accusations of racism in the 1990s. The author first traces the influence of second-wave and third-wave feminism on Gilman studies, and then looks at the ideological and rhetorical common ground shared by certain postures of revisionist criticism in the 1990s along with the culture of political correctness, with special reference to John L. Jackson’s notion of “de cardio racism”.