Italian and American Studies Interrupted Narratives Intersectional Representations in Postcolonial Literature

This book argues for the importance of adopting a postcolonial perspective in analysing contemporary Italian culture and literature. “Interrupted Narratives and Intersectional Representations in Italian Postcolonial Literature is a tour-de-force from one of the leading scholars in the field. Romeo argues that rethinking the concepts of Italian identity and culture is necessary in order to highlight the transnational nature of cultural formations, and that adopting a postcolonial and decolonial approach to those concepts is an equally urgent task. Her deft, comprehensive overview of Italian postcolonial literature and accomplished thematic analysis of an astonishing number of texts make this book essential reading for students and scholars of Italian worldwide. It constitutes a significant contribution to the ongoing reconceptualization of Italian Studies and to the reshaping of cultural understandings of italianità.” -Emma Bond, author of Writing Migration through the Body Interrupted Narratives and Intersectional Representations in Italian Postcolonial Literature is a tribute to one of the most historically significant, culturally incisive, and artistically revitalizing literary and cultural phenomena that have developed in Italy in recent decades. With a new introduction, this expanded English translation of Riscrivere la nazione: La letteratura italiana postcoloniale (2018) exposes the colonial imaginaries that still permeate contemporary Italian culture and examines multiple counternarratives authored by postcolonial writers, artists, and intellectuals. Connecting diverse histories of migration that implicate Italy, including incoming migrations from many parts of the world, colonialism, and periodic waves of emigration, this volume also looks outward to a more diffuse postcolonial condition characterizing Europe at present. Adopting an intersectional perspective, this study analyzes literary and cinematic representations of gender, race, color, and space, thus arguing for a reconceptualization of Italian identity and contributing to a redefinition of national literature as well as to the decolonization of Italian society and culture. Caterina Romeo is Associate Professor at Sapienza Università di Roma, Italy, where she teaches Literary Theory, Gender Studies, and Migration Studies. She is the author of Riscrivere la nazione. La letteratura italiana postcoloniale (2018) and Narrative tra due sponde: Memoir di italiane d'America (2005). She has coedited Postcolonial Italy: Challenging National Homogeneity (2012), Postcolonial Europe (special issue of the journal Postcolonial Studies, 2015), and Intersectional Italy (special issue of the Journal of Postcolonial Writing, 2022). This book argues for the importance of adopting a postcolonial perspective in analysing contemporary Italian culture and literature. Originally published in Italian in 2018 as Riscrivere la nazione: La letteratura italiana postcoloniale, this new English translation brings to light the connections between the present, the colonial past and the great historical waves of international and intranational migration. By doing so, the book shows how a sense of Italian national identity emerged, at least in part, as the result of different migrations and why there is such a strong resistance in Italy to extending the privilege of italianità, or Italianness, to those who have arrived on Italian soil in recent years. Exploring over 100 texts written by migrant and second-generation writers, the book takes an intersectional approach to understanding gender and race in Italian identity. It connects these literary and cultural contexts to the Italian colonial past, while also looking outwards to a more diffuse postcolonial condition in Europe.