italian-studies: Scholarly discussions in any field of Italian studies
Dear Prof. Gatt-Rutter ,
Better late than never, here is the proposed title and brief abstract of the
paper I would like to
present at the Canberra conference.
If you think it can be of general interest please let me know as soon as
possible.
To obtain funds from my university for this trip to Australia, I would need
to receive
from you a letter (in hard on official university stationary) of invitation
to read the paper,
or at least confirmation that the paper has been accepted for inclusion in
the conference progeramme.
Physical address is given below.
Thanking you in anticipation,
Alida Poeti
Abstract
"(E)merging identities: Another look at African Women's Autobiographies"
Not much has been written about African women who write autobiographies from
within a particular cultural and ethnic context in an alien environment. Yet
today there are a considerable number of African women living in Europe, who
over the years have had to reinvent themselves, discover who and what they
really are, merge old identities with new ones. A few have penned their
private stories to define their identities as much as to record a new
chapter in the history of the African people.
My paper will therefore deal with one such autobiography, that of Nassera
Chohra, an Algerian girl who grows up in Marseilles and later chooses to
immigrate to Italy, where she settles and writes an account of what it was
like growing up and asserting oneself in a white society. It will analyse
her quest for a female, cultural and ethnic identity in a world that is
hostile to her Islamic upbringing. Her self-portrait is at the same time a
group portrait of many other emigrant women caught between two cultures, two
worlds, two value systems. Her story is unique in many ways, while at the
same time it mirrors and reflects the countless other stories that differ
only in detail.
Chohra's Volevo diventare bianca is a prima example of what Nancy Miller
defines as a "modelling of 'identity through alterity'".
************************************************************************
Alida Poeti
Dept. Modern Languages and Literatures
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
Private Bag 3
WITS 2050
RSA
Tel: 27-11-717 4202
Fax: 27-11-403 7289
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
**********************************************************************
To join the list, send the message: join italian-studies YOUR NAME
to: [log in to unmask]
To send a message to the list, address it to:
[log in to unmask]
To leave the list, send the message: leave italian-studies
to: [log in to unmask]
In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to:
[log in to unmask]
For further information, visit our web site:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/italian-studies.html
|