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Precarious Landscapes: Space, Identity, And Community In Migrant Italy

dc.contributor.authorFay, Elisabeth
dc.contributor.chairCampbell,Timothy C.
dc.contributor.committeeMemberLasansky,Diana Medina
dc.contributor.committeeMemberPinkus,Karen Elyse
dc.date.accessioned2016-04-04T18:05:11Z
dc.date.available2021-02-01T07:00:32Z
dc.date.issued2016-02-01
dc.description.abstractIn this dissertation, I map the ways that intersecting historical, literary, cinematic, and media narratives produce spaces commonly associated with Italy's minority populations. My analysis of these spaces-squats, encampments, detention centers, urban peripheries, and coastal waters-uncovers the conflicting strategies of Italian identity production that have emerged in response to new migrations, and further examines the ways that migrants living in Italy articulate their own identities. I argue that popular narratives produce distinct migrant spaces by emphasizing alterity and framing precariousness as an essentially foreign phenomenon. Consequently, these spaces are seen as a threat to Italian national unity and continuity: zones of foreign precariousness encroaching on the stability of Italian communities. I look beyond mainstream constructions of migrant spaces, and examine narratives from Italy's thriving minor literature and cinema. In these works, migrant authors and directors explore the potentiality of living precariously, constructing spaces hospitable to fragmented and overlapping identities. Ultimately, I argue that these works provide us with alternative ways of considering space, identity, and community, allowing diverse subjects to navigate the shifting landscape of a global age.
dc.identifier.otherbibid: 9597009
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1813/43595
dc.language.isoen_US
dc.subjectcontemporary Italy
dc.subjectmigration and diaspora
dc.subjectminor literature and cinema
dc.titlePrecarious Landscapes: Space, Identity, And Community In Migrant Italy
dc.typedissertation or thesis
thesis.degree.disciplineRomance Studies
thesis.degree.grantorCornell University
thesis.degree.levelDoctor of Philosophy
thesis.degree.namePh. D., Romance Studies

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