Modern Languages and Literatures

The multilingualism of Finnegans Wake has been widely regarded as a feature that makes the text difficult and perplexing, and even inessential to some readers and translators who have chosen to iron it out of their plot summaries and translations. Because the work has a reputation for impenetrability and inaccessibility that at times borders on discursive incoherence, its political value has chiefly been related to its rebellion against linguistic order—specifically the structural, historical, and ideological rule of the British Empire’s primary language, English—rather than its capacity for literary pleasure, inclusivity, and illumination. This project critically complicates established assessments of Joycean multilingualism and develops innovative transdisciplinary approaches to the Wake’s multilingual design in an effort to do scholarly, creative, as well as ethical, justice to the text itself as well as its variously diverse global readership. Chapters 1 and 2 explore the stylis...

I am interested in investigating some issues related to the impossibility of motherhood in Italian contemporary society and literature. Italy has one of the lowest birth rates in the world. Many women decide not to have children; others postpone their decision for financial reasons or to pursue their professional careers, and tend to become mothers at an older age than in the past, facing more problems related to their health and sometimes the impossibility to procreate. Deciding not to be a mother is a choice often questioned by society, since motherhood is still considered the social norm and is assumed to be both natural and desirable for every woman. Women who do not want children and women who cannot have children do not conform to this social rule and often need to justify and face their choices and destiny. The impossibility of motherhood, moreover, can lead to the attempt to become mothers at any cost; for instance, to Gemma’s character in Margaret Mazzantini’s Come to the World. In my paper, I will consider some theoretical issues in psychology related to motherhood (such as those studied by Silvia Vegetti Finzi in Want a Child: New Maternity Between Nature and Science) to focus on this quest for motherhood in Mazzantini’s work, in Eleonora Mazzoni’s The Defectives, and in Lisa Corva’s Confessions of a Would-Be-Mother, and investigate psychological issues related to motherhood in our contemporary society, where surrogate mothering and fertility treatments have become real and controversial options.

L’articolo si concentra sugli aspetti identitari e sulla rappresentazione dell’alterità nel romanzo di Laila Wadia, "Amiche per la pelle". Nell’immaginario edificio di Via Ungaretti a Trieste, dove è ambientata la vicenda, convivono diverse tipologie di personaggi appartenenti a varie nazionalità: italiana, albanese, bosniaca, cinese e indiana. Il pluralismo e la diversità che caratterizzano i protagonisti offrono una descrizione complessa degli stranieri che non sono definiti in modo fisso e stereotipato, bensì come personalità ibride, multiculturali e in continua evoluzione. Nel testo sono approfonditi gli aspetti che definiscono l’identità multipla dei personaggi principali, le tappe e le difficoltà riscontrate nel lungo processo d’integrazione nella società italiana (l’apprendimento della lingua e dei costumi locali, la difficoltà nel trovare un alloggio e un lavoro adeguati, il razzismo e i pregiudizi di cui sono vittime, ma anche la solidarietà dimostrata da parte di alcuni italiani). Sono ugualmente analizzati i pregiudizi e i luoghi comuni attribuiti agli stranieri da parte degli abitanti nativi e lo sguardo degli immigrati nei confronti della loro nuova patria.

Italy has one of the lowest birth rates in the world and involuntary childlessness is becoming an increasing reality. After several unsuccessful attempts, some prospective parents embark on the road to having a child through assisted procreation, a road that requires time, patience and money and is not without difficulties and pitfalls.
In the Italian context this situation is worsened by the fact that not being able to have children is a taboo not to be discussed openly. Those who have had recourse to assisted procreation often do so in secret. Moreover, Italy boasts one of the most restrictive laws in the field of assisted reproduction (the so called “Legge 40”) and the Catholic Church condemns these treatments. In an age where almost anything is considered possible, having children is not always as easy, obvious and “natural” as it seems, and infertility is becoming a serious social problem. However, it is indicative that in publishing and – often anonymously – on blogs and Internet forums, the subject has begun to be discussed. These are symptoms of a problem that exists and is finally beginning to emerge and be addressed. In my paper, I will consider some theoretical issues in sociology related to the consequences of childlessness after IVF treatment. I will be looking at texts by Lisa Corva (Confessioni di un’aspirante madre, 2005) and Eleonora Mazzoni (Le difettose, 2012) which both deal with a quest for motherhood through assisted procreation. With references to Gayle Letherby (Mother or Not, Mother or What? Problems and Definition of Identity, 1994; Other than Mother and Mothers as Others: the Experience of Motherhood and Non-Motherhood in Relation to “Infertility” and “Involuntary Childlessness”, 1999; Challenging Dominant Discourses: Identity and Change and the Experience of ‘Infertility’ and ‘Involuntary Childlessness’, 2002), James H. Monach (Childless: No Choice. The Experience of Involuntary Childlessness, 1993) and Karen Throsby (When IVF Fails. Feminism, Infertility and the Negotiation of Normality, 2004), among others, I will investigate issues related to the female protagonists’ desire for motherhood in these novels, and their negotiation with “normality” and female identity when IVF fails.