Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Date of Degree

9-2015

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Program

Comparative Literature

Advisor

Giancarlo Lombardi

Committee Members

Hermann Haller

Meena Alexander

Teresa Fiore

Subject Categories

Comparative Literature

Keywords

Body; Borders; Mediterranean; Postcolonialism; Postcommunism; Translingualism

Abstract

This work thematically analyzes literary texts written in the Italian language by Albanian migrants in the last three decades. This recent body of works is here defined as Contemporary Albanian-Italian Literature. It is analyzed in its literary and theoretic specificities, while being placed in the larger contexts of both Italian Migration Literature and Italian Literature. Four major themes -- namely memory, borders, language, and body -- are analyzed through relevant critical theory in the areas of autobiography, post-colonial studies, Mediterranean studies, gender studies, and translation studies to show how Albanian-Italian literature lives at the intersection of multiple literary and theoretical discourses. While investigating a new migrant aesthetics which resonates of other migrant voices, this work registers both the birth of a post-communist narrative in Italian and the extension towards the East of the Italian post-colonial discourse. It is here argued that Albanian-Italian Literature, through its literary themes, socio-political implications, and linguistic displacement is giving a transnational quality to Italian Literature, intertwining it with a broader discourse on world literature.

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