Carla Lonzi: Private Dialogues and Autocoscienza

When I became a critic, I realized it was a false profession.
-Carla Lonzi, 1968

In 1969 Carla Lonzi published her Autoritratto/(Self-portrait), which was a collection of conversations with leading Italian artists that derived from hundreds of recorded interviews. According to Judith Kirshner, the texts are a weaving of autobiographical aecedotes, gossip, and artistic rationalizations. "Her idiosyncratic self-portrait exists as a fragmentary record of conversations where author and authority are displaced by a sense of shared community," wrote Kirshner.

By 1970, Lonzi had given up career as a critic entirely. It was an act of refussal to participate in cultural analysis based on definitions of male genius and rationality. By 1970 she helped found the Feminille Rivolte and wrote the key text, Sputiamo su Hegel (Let's Spit on Hegel.)