Transgenerational trauma and the gendered body in postcolonial women's writing in Italy

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dc.check.date2036-12-31
dc.contributor.advisorGiuliani, Chiara
dc.contributor.advisorRoss, Silvia
dc.contributor.authorKane, Noreenen
dc.contributor.funderResearch Irelanden
dc.contributor.funderNational University of Irelanden
dc.date.accessioned2026-10-02T12:51:58Z
dc.date.available2026-10-02T12:51:58Z
dc.date.issued2025-11-17
dc.date.submitted2025-11-17
dc.description.abstractOver the past three decades, numerous literary texts have been published by women writers with origins in Italy’s former colonies in the Horn of Africa. These narratives provide a gendered perspective on Italian colonial violence and its legacy, challenging hegemonic Italian collective memory, which minimises Italy’s colonial endeavours. Simultaneously, the texts confront omissions in nationalist memories, which often erase women’s involvement in anticolonial struggles. This thesis explores the representation of transgenerational trauma in ten novels and memoirs, written in Italian and English, by women of Somali and Ethiopian descent. Though the writers come from various backgrounds, with differing relationships to Italy, each of the narratives in question foregrounds the trauma of Italian colonialism and its negotiation through the female body. The authors in question are Somali-born Shirin Ramzanali Fazel, Somali Italian writers Ubah Cristina Ali-Farah and Igiaba Scego, Ethiopian Italian Gabriella Ghermandi, and Ethiopian American Maaza Mengiste. While this literary corpus has received well-deserved scholarly attention, much analysis assumes a Western or African American theoretical lens. My thesis adds insight into the representation of trauma and resistance in these works by interpreting them through both traditional trauma theories and memory studies, and Afro-feminist theories that foreground the Ubuntu worldview, emphasising interconnectedness. In three sections, I explore how trauma is transmitted within the family, through educational institutions, and how literature may intervene positively in the transmission of trauma. I contend that the narratives analysed, in both form and content, provide significant insight into the crucial role communities play in the negotiation of trauma. Whether through connection with ancestors, the more-thanhuman, or with readers, these narratives show that to break the chain of generational trauma, it is imperative to recognise our inherent relationality, which may involve, for many readers, an acknowledgement of our implication in the colonial past.en
dc.description.statusNot peer revieweden
dc.description.versionAccepted Versionen
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.citationKane, N. 2025. Transgenerational trauma and the gendered body in postcolonial women's writing in Italy. PhD Thesis, University College Cork.en
dc.identifier.endpage273en
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10468/19409
dc.language.isoenen
dc.publisherUniversity College Corken
dc.rights© 2025, Noreen Kane.en
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/en
dc.subjectPostcolonial Italyen
dc.subjectPostcolonial Italian women's writingen
dc.subjectThe gendered bodyen
dc.subjectTransgenerational traumaen
dc.subjectItalian memory studiesen
dc.subjectImplicated Readersen
dc.titleTransgenerational trauma and the gendered body in postcolonial women's writing in Italyen
dc.typeDoctoral thesisen
dc.type.qualificationlevelDoctoralen
dc.type.qualificationnamePhD - Doctor of Philosophyen
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