My project at the British School at Rome focused on the cultural significance of the city of Rome in Italian post-colonial literature produced by women authors over the last twenty years.
Italian colonialism in Africa began at the end of the nineteenth century, was strongly sustained by Fascism, and terminated with the end of World War II (although Somalia continued to be an Italian protectorate until 1960). Despite the cultural, linguistic and architectural traces left by Italian colonialism in both Africa and Italy, this page of Italian history has never been assimilated properly by the national political and historiographical debate. It is precisely the forgotten memory of Italian colonialism that I tackled in my study of literary texts. My research is thus to be inserted in the ‘Post-colonial Turn’ that Italian Studies have experienced in the past fifteen years and that recently has given birth to many valid works (the authors of which were in vast majority present at the conference Transnational Italies organized at the BSR in October 2016).
Among all the so-called Italian post-colonial writers, I chose to focus on women writers. The female viewpoint represents a special angle from which to observe colonialism and its effects, since women experienced the mechanisms of power and discrimination not only through racial but also through sexual inequality. In particular, I analysed the works of Ribka Sibahtu (Asmara, 1962) and Igiaba Scego (Rome, 1974), chosen in accordance with their special treatment of the city of Rome. Their whole oeuvre is imbued with the representation of the city, which they often address together with issues of migration, gender, embodiment and cultural mediation. Specifically, I analysed novels, collections of poems, essays, articles, photographs and a documentary, all published between 1993 and 2016.
The aim of my project was to shed light on the identity of Rome as a transnational space, rediscovering the city and many of its symbolic places and urban areas through both a gender and a post-colonial perspective.
I found all the materials I needed to complete my project in the libraries in Rome, including the Biblioteca Nazionale, the Biblioteca Alessandrina and the Biblioteca Monteverdi at Sapienza — Università di Roma. I also conducted some archive research at the library of the Centro Informazione e Educazione allo Sviluppo and at the Casa Internazionale delle Donne.
Besides my lecture at the BSR, which was for me a very fruitful moment of intellectual exchange, I also presented my project on different academic occasions, including the conference Innovation and Tensions organized by the Journal of Italian Cinema and Media Studies at the American University of Rome (9–10 June). The paper I delivered on this occasion focused on the use of intermediality in the representation of Rome by post-colonial authors; this paper is currently being revised with a view to a submission to the journal that organized the conference. Another article — specifically examining the works by Igiaba Scego — was accepted for a themed issue of the journal The Italianist, which I will guest-edit together with Stefano Jossa (Royal Holloway, University of London) and which will be published in 2019. These two articles — both based on the results of the research I conducted at the BSR — represent the main outcome of my project, but also a first step towards the drafting of a monograph I am conceiving currently, dedicated to the mapping of the spaces of post-colonial literature in all Italy, with each chapter dedicated to a different city, one of them being Rome.
None of these achievements would have been possible without the support and the unique vibrant intellectual atmosphere I experienced during my nine months’ residency at the BSR.
