Every Word I Write is History: Memory and Literary Analysis of Italian Postwar Literature
Date
2018-09-15
Authors
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Publisher
University of Calgary
Abstract
This report will analyze postwar Italian literature from 1945 to 1990. It will look at how Italian society dealt with the events of the war and how the idea of national unity and the nation were compromised during and after the Second World War and the internal Civil War (1943-1945). I will analyze various Italian authors who contributed to different perspectives on postwar Italy, such as Cesare Pavese, Italo Calvino, Alberta Moravia, Elsa Morante, Ada Gobetti, Natalia Ginzburg, and Maria Occhipinti. An analysis of nationalism, gender, and memory will form the backbone of this report. Literature holds the key to understanding Italian society in the postwar world because of the freedom and vastness that writing provided Italians who had previously sought refuge from the persecution of their faith, gender, or political standing. Various questions emerge when studying this period; questions that are worthy of analysis. How did partisans attempt to understand their role in a larger struggle for their nation? Could women push through the paternalistic hierarchies established by fascism and emerge stronger? To what extent do these authors challenge the landscape of Italian memory studies? The answers to these questions lie in the words of postwar Italian literature.
Description
Keywords
Italian literature, Twentieth century literature, Italian history, memory studies
Citation
Pennetta, S. (2018). Every Word I Write is History: Memory and Literary Analysis of Italian Postwar Literature (Rep.). Calgary, AB: University of Calgary.