Studies in Mobilities, Literature, and Culture Shaping Space Mobilities Contemporary Walking Narratives

Shaping Space and Mobilities in Contemporary Walking Narratives represents an exploration of the dynamic intersections between mobility, space, and literature. Mobility, Place, and Displacement in French- and Italian-Speaking Literary Studies explores the issue of spatial mobility as it questions the relationship between the institutional and individual representations, the cartographic productions of state powers, the narratives and images of movement, displacements and walking/writing spaces. The central thesis that runs through all the contributions of the volume is that it is the relationship with spaces, and between spaces, perceptions, histories and images, more than the spaces themselves that allow us to explore our connection to the contemporary world. The book offers key insights on the way French and Italian humanities scholars think the question of mobility from the perspective of the re-examination of space. Adrien Frenay is Teaching Professor at the Université Paris Nanterre. He is a member of the Centre des Sciences des Littératures en Langue Française (CSLF) and of the Centre des Recherches Pluridisciplinaires Multilingues (CRPM), where he coordinates, with Lucia Quaquarelli, the international project Espace, Déplacement, Mobilité. His research focuses on the historical poetics of mobilities in the 19th and 20th century French novel. Giulio Iacoli is Associate Professor at the University of Parma, where he teaches literary theory, sociology and comparatistics. His research fields include: contemporary narratives; inter artes relations (themes, phototexts, adaptations, rewritings); geographies and cartographies in literature; relations between writing and educational institutions; gender and queer studies. Lucia Quaquarelli is Associate Professor in Italian Studies at the Université Paris Nanterre, she is the co-head of the Centre des Recherches Pluridisciplinaires Multilingues (CRPM) and coordinates, with Adrien Frenay, the international project Espace, Déplacement, Mobilité, and with Dorothée Cailleux the international project Les fabriques de la traduction. Her research focuses on contemporary narratives and on the cultural and political role of translation. Shaping Space and Mobilities in Contemporary Walking Narratives represents an exploration of the dynamic intersections between mobility, space, and literature. By focusing on walking as both a practice and a narrative device, the book illustrates how mobilities shape and reconfigure our experiences of space. Drawing from both literary and interdisciplinary approaches, the contributors engage with diverse themes, including urban flânerie, rural wanderings, migration, and queer spatialities. The research presented here shows how literary discourse mediates and constructs human relationships with space and place. Addressing with key theoretical movements such as the narrative, spatial, and mobilities turns, this book contributes to the recent humanities turn by advancing discussions within mobility studies, particularly in French and Italian contexts.