Interdisciplinary Studies in Diasporas Transcultural Narrative Identities

This is the first study on the development of Italian ethnic identity in North America (United States and Canada) from a gender perspective and based on memoir. It argues for a thoughtful reexamination of an emerging genre in contemporary autobiographical writing which is particularly apt for narrating the experiences of women and ethnic minorities. This book aims to create a new space for the analysis of female experience in the Italian diaspora through a selected sample of representative writers in contemporary Anglophone literature. In addition, it presents memoir writing as a fertile ground for literary and cultural research and as an important framework for expanding paradigms of identity in our increasingly diverse societies. This innovative study focuses on intersectional memoirs –texts written from the perspective of ethnic women. It examines the formation of narratives of identity in contemporary writing, particularly looking at the expression of cultural and gender difference through the genre of memoir and within the US and Canadian contexts. The work of migrant and ethnic communities and marginalized voices situated at the boundaries of nations, cultures, social classes and genders, is examined through a blend of literary, feminist, racial and cultural memory theories supported by textual analysis.