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Migrant Imaginaries

Figures in Italian Migration Literature

by Jennifer Burns (Author)
©2013 Monographs VIII, 220 Pages
Series: Italian Modernities, Volume 18

Summary

This book addresses a rich corpus of contemporary narratives by authors who have come to Italy as migrants. It traces the figurative commonalities that emerge across these diverse texts, which together suggest the shape and substance of what might be termed ‘migrant imaginaries’. Examining five central figures and concepts – identity, memory, home, place and space, and literature – across a range of novels and stories by writers of African and Middle Eastern origin, the study elucidates the affective and expressive processes that inflect migrant story-telling. Drawing on the work of cultural theorists such as Sara Ahmed and Michel de Certeau, as well as on recent work in postcolonial literary studies, memory studies, human geography and feminist theory, the book probes the varied works of Shirin Ramzanali Fazel, Amara Lakhous, Mohsen Melliti, Younis Tawfik and many others. Each chapter posits alternative interpretations of the ways in which the interior experience of encounters across territories, cultures and languages is figured in this literature. In doing so, the book moves towards a wider apprehension of recent Italian migration narratives as suggestions of what a new notion of contemporary ‘Italian’ literature might look like, figured at once within and beyond the boundaries of a national literature, a national language and a national cultural imaginary.

Details

Pages
VIII, 220
Year
2013
ISBN (PDF)
9783035305067
ISBN (Softcover)
9783034309868
DOI
10.3726/978-3-0353-0506-7
Language
English
Publication date
2013 (September)
Keywords
memory home feminist theory identity
Published
Oxford, Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, Frankfurt am Main, New York, Wien, 2013. 220 pp.

Biographical notes

Jennifer Burns (Author)

Jennifer Burns is Associate Professor in the Department of Italian at the University of Warwick. Her research engages with contemporary Italian literature and culture and has moved from examining notions of political commitment and the ethics of reading and writing in postmodernity to a focus on recent literature authored by migrants in Italy.

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233 pages