I Dialoghi della vita armonica di Paola Masino e la critica della domesticità fra letteratura e architettura

Abstract

The article focuses on Paola Masino's Dialoghi della vita armonica, published in the magazine Domus between 1941 and 1942. While Masino's dialogues apparently conform to the themes of the magazine, dwelling on questions of architecture, fashion and taste, and discussing topics pertinent to furnishing and decorating the home, the form of the philosophical dialogue allows broader cultural, social and aesthetic reflections. The dialogues subvert the concept of “harmony” and conduct a critique of the commodification of culture and the notion of exchange value as a qualitative parameter of contemporary existence, symbolised by the home and the idea of domesticity. Such critique encompasses the role assigned to women within this system, expressing the rejection of the idea of femininity imposed by bourgeois culture and its objectifying and commercial criteria.