Rewriting the Journey in Contemporary Italian Literature: Figures of Subjectivity in Progress (Toronto Italian Studies)

The mobility of women is a central issue in feminist analysis of literary works and historical periods. Rewriting the Journey in Contemporary Italian Literature explores the concept of the journey from feminist, psychoanalytic, and postcolonial perspectives, in order to offer an alternative understanding of'moving.'Cinzia Sartini Blum examines the new literature of migration in Italian and journeys in the works of Biancamaria Frabotta, Dacia Maraini, Toni Maraini, and Maria Pace Ottieri, to demonstrate that women writers and migrant authors in contemporary Italy present journeys as events that are beyond heroic modern exploration and postmodern fragmentation.Using the mythical figure of Gradiva, Blum shows how contemporary Italian women writers have reinvented Gradiva to reveal subjectivities that challenge and overcome the postmodern melancholia and nihilism prevalent in contemporary male writers and thinkers. She also considers the connection between metaphorical and literal mobility, the role of the intellectual as cultural intermediary, the roles of women in cultural encounters within mass migrations, and how migrancy is a way of being in the postcolonial world.An impeccable piece of original scholarship, Rewriting the Journey in Contemporary Italian Literature will be of interest to feminist, literary, and postcolonial scholars. MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict Contents 6 Acknowledgments 8 Introduction 12 1 Beyond the End of the Journey 20 2 Gradiva’s Journey: Genealogy of a Feminist Trope 52 3 Biancamaria Frabotta’s Lead: From fuga to viandanza 100 4 Walking in the Shoes of Another: Dacia Maraini’s Departures and Returns 141 5 Exile as the Ultimate Utopia: Toni Maraini’s vivere vagabondo 178 6 Bridging Cultures: Figures of Mediation 211 Part One: Bringing Home the Exotic 213 Part Two: The Journey in Migrant Literature 230 Conclusion: Toward an Interactive Universalism 264 Notes 268 Works Cited 356 Index of Names 382 "The mobility of women is a central issue in feminist analysis of literary works and historical periods. Rewriting the Journey in Contemporary Italian Literature explores the concept of the journey from feminist, psychoanalytic, and postcolonial perspectives, in order to offer an alternative understanding of 'moving.' Cinzia Sartini Blum examines the new literature of migration in Italian and journeys in the works of Biancamaria Frabotta, Dacia Maraini, Toni Maraini, and Maria Pace Ottieri, to demonstrate that women writers and migrant authors in contemporary Italy present journeys as events that are beyond heroic modern exploration and postmodern fragmentation Using the mythical figure of Gradiva, Blum shows how contemporary Italian women writers have reinvented Gradiva to reveal subjectivities that challenge and overcome the postmodern melancholia and nihilism prevalent in contemporary male writers and thinkers. She also considers the connection between metaphorical and literal mobility, the role of the intellectual as cultural intermediary, the roles of women in cultural encounters within mass migrations, and how migrancy is a way of being in the postcolonial world."--Pub. desc Cinzia Sartini Blum. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [347]-372) And Index.