“I HAVE BEEN HER KIND.” HOW TO WRITE A WOMAN’S LIFE. THE ITALIAN PERSPECTIVE

Carolyn Hilbrun thought there are four ways to write a woman’s life: the woman may do it as autobiography or as fiction; a biographer may tell her story or she may write her own life “in advance of living it, unconsciously, and without recognizing or naming the process.” This panel examines strategies of self-representation in (auto)biographies and novels by Italian women authors from the XX century to the present. We are particularly interested in the relationship between first and third person perspectives: What does it mean for a woman to write the life of another woman? We welcome papers that engage with literary theory (contemporary Italian feminism and queer studies, psychoanalysis) and comparative perspectives.

Please send a 150-200 word abstract and brief bio to the session organizer by December 1, 2019. 

Organizer: Mattia Mossali, The Graduate Center – City University of New York, mmossali1@gradcenter.cuny.edu