Videtta, Annunziata (2009) Re-visioning representations of Italian migrant women in textual renditions of the Italian presence in Britain. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Abstract

This thesis explores representations of Italian migrant women in textual renditions of the Italian presence in Britain written and produced by descendants of Italian migrants between 1982 and 2002. The thesis offers detailed critical readings of six texts focusing on the experiences of Italian migrant women in Britain and their identity formation, and is organised according to genre categories including: theatre, romantic fiction and culinary memoir. Through close textual analysis, paying particular attention to key themes of movement, space and place within the context of female migration; the study scrutinizes the identity formation of Italian migrant women by demonstrating how seemingly clear and univocal models of Italian identity can be reconfigured as fluid conceptualizations of identity. It is argued that Italian identity as it is represented in a British context can be considered as a construct constituted by the repetition of a series of stylized acts. It is precisely through the repetition of these acts that Italian migrant women create forms of sustenance and stability for themselves and their families within the host country. This study moves beyond monolithic images of Italian migrant women, broadening the number of perspectives from which they can be viewed, by examining the way in which they are represented as stretching the seemingly fixed boundary between the public and private sphere in an attempt to transgress spatial and identity boundaries.

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