Representing Italianness through domestic objects in the literature of Italian migration
What is it about?
This essay focuses on how domestic objects depicted by two Italian authors writing about the experience of a migrant coming-of-age in the United States, Helen Barolini and Chiara Barzini, by using diverse multilingual and (self-)translation strategies highlight the difficulties of bridging their Italian and American selfhood within an Italian household relocated abroad.
Why is it important?
By focusing on the representation and the translation of objects identified as Italian items, my article investigates material culture by applying a translational and transnational approach to cultural and literary studies within the broader context of the studies on migration and ethnicity. It constitutes an original contribution in analyzing how objects underline how women's diasporic experience is entangled with their achievement of self-confidence and independence within the context of the Italian diaspora.