La formazione intellettuale e politica di Enrica Pischel

Enrica Collotti Pischel published Origini ideologiche della rivoluzione cinese in 1958 when she was 28-year-old. The book is widely recognized as a major contribution to the development of Chinese studies and more in general Area studies in Italy. Its original approach combined an interest for contemporary China with insights on the Chinese mental structure in the long run. Collotti Pischel drew from Marxist theory a perspective that combined political history with the history of political thought, which was yet to be seen in Italian Area studies.
This chapter focusses on Pischel’s BA thesis, which was the preliminary work of Origini ideologiche. It provides a biographical sketch of Pischel as a child and young adult, based on
archival sources, in order to outline her political and intellectual background as a young scholar. The analysis will assess the legacy of Enrica’s father, Giuliano, and her thesis supervisor, Antonio Banfi, in her early research production.