Stockholm university
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Anna Finozzi

About me

I am currently a postdoctoral researcher and I work as Assistant professor at the Department of Romance Studies and Classics, Stockholm University. 

My main area of research is Italian Postcolonial Studies; this has proven to be a fruitful field of study to pursue a feminist, decolonial, and interdisciplinary approach to Italian Studies. Under this broader theoretical umbrella, I have explored children’s literature, multilingualism, podcasts, knowledge-production of Italian Studies as a field of research.

My monograph La letteratura italiana postcoloniale per l'infanzia (2010-2022). Lingua, spazio, colore (2023) analyses a corpus of texts published between 2010 and 2022 by migrants and second-generation migrants uncovering how these books display the acquisition of agency by the characters and the rupture of the Eurocentric and adultocentric narrative to de-establish Italian collective memory. This is done along three main interpretative lines that structure the analytical chapters: language, space, and colour. 

Of recent publication: Postcasting the Italian postcolonial (2023) and Italian Studies across disciplines (2022, with Marco Ceravolo)

 

PhD in Italian literature (Stockholm University, 2022)

BA: Lettere Moderne (Milan, 2013 - Erasmus at the KU Leuven, Belgium)

ReMA: Comparative Literary Studies (Utrecht University, 2016 - Exchange at the UWA, Western Australia)

 

Research Interests

Postcolonial Studies; Memory Studies; Italian contemporary literature; Children's Literary Studies.

Teaching

Courses:

BA

Year 1: Italian literature 1 - Italiensk litteratur 1

Year 2: History of Italian literature (1900-2000) - Litteraturhistoria Del 2: 1900- och 2000-talets litteratur

Year 3: Premodern literature - Italiensk äldre litteratur

MA

Migrant literature - Migrantlitteratur

Research

My Phd thesis is titled La letteratura postcoloniale italiana per l'infanzia (2010-2021). Lingua, spazio, colore. It analyses a corpus of texts published between 2010 and 2021 to find out how they shape a postcolonial imaginary, which I refer to as a set of implicit or explicit images that strengthens the counter-narrative already created by Italian postcolonial literature “for adults”. In particular, I uncover how these books display the acquisition of agency by the characters and the rupture of the Eurocentric and adultocentric narrative to de-establish Italian collective memory. This is done along three main interpretative lines that structure the analytical chapters: language, space, and colour.

Publications

A selection from Stockholm University publication database

  • La letteratura postcoloniale italiana per l’infanzia (2010-2021): Lingua, spazio, colore

    2022. Anna Finozzi.

    Thesis (Doc)

    Although Italian postcolonial literature, defined as literature written by migrants and second-generation migrants in Italian, has been studied broadly at least since the 2000s, Italian postcolonial literature for children has almost completely been ignored. The only monograph that has dealt with this corpus is the groundbreaking E noi? Il “posto” degli scrittori migranti nella narrativa per ragazzi by Lorenzo Luatti published in 2010. Ever since then, with very few exceptions, there have not been any attempts to deal with this corpus. What has happened since 2010? Have postcolonial children’s books continued to grow in number? And what stories do they tell? To answer these questions, this dissertation analyses a corpus of texts published between 2010 and 2021. Out of these nearly one hundred books, thirty have been subjected to a close reading, resulting in analyses that are transdisciplinary and comparative in nature. I argue that the corpus shapes a postcolonial imaginary, which I refer to as a set of implicit or explicit images that strengthens the counter-narrative already created by Italian postcolonial literature “for adults”. In particular, I uncover how these books display the acquisition of agency by the characters and the rupture of the Eurocentric and adultocentric narrative to de-establish Italian collective memory. This is done along three main interpretative lines that structure the analytical chapters: language, space, and colour. 

    After the introduction and the presentation of the theoretical framework, the second chapter focuses on the negotiation between Italian and the language of the Other. After arguing that the corpus often circulates within the Italian cultural panorama as a translated text, I investigate the strategies through which child characters exercise their agency through the appropriation of their names, their memories, and their stories to dismantle the binarism-based labels underlying their socially constructed identities. In the third chapter, I first concentrate on the intersection between critical geography and postcolonial studies; then, I explore how the child characters transgress boundaries, dissolve the geographic determinism, and evade adult and colonial surveillance by mapping the urban space with their own memories. A focus is also reserved for school as a place where children experience bullying, cyberbullying, and racism. In the fourth chapter, dedicated to colour, I show how the dichotomy darkness–badness is dismissed in the corpus through the exploration of human and nonhuman skin colours, both visually and verbally. The last part of the chapter is dedicated to the books that manage to eliminate colourism by dissociating colour from a “natural” meaning; indeed, they employ colours to explain context-oriented meanings which, once modified, can lead to changes.

    The dissertation concludes by stating how these books inform a postcolonial imaginary by discussing issues of race, gender, sexuality, ability, and mental health. In particular, the characters claim their agency by transgressing the physical and conceptual boundaries imposed on them by Western and adult oppression. The re-telling of memories and the insertion of silences and breaks enhance the necessity of re-thinking the sequence-based ideology on which History lies. Finally, I stress the need for more studies in these directions by highlighting the liveliness and dynamicity, as well as the social importance, of this corpus. 

    Read more about La letteratura postcoloniale italiana per l’infanzia (2010-2021)

  • Conquistare lo Spazio: le mappe alternative nella letteraturapostcoloniale italiana per l’infanzia

    2022. Anna Finozzi. Italian Studies across Disciplines, 203-232

    Chapter

    What does Italian Studies look like today and what scenarios should we expect in the near future? The aim of the volume is to encourage scholars coming from different backgrounds to tackle the discussions already begun on these questions. By selecting some of the most significant theoretical and methodological inputs to these multifaceted debates — Posthuman and Nonhuman Studies, New Materialism, Media Studies, Feminist Studies, Trauma Studies, Children’s Studies — applied to Italian cultural production, the book reflects on interdisciplinarity and collaboration, and suggests new perspectives on the future of Italian Studies as a lively field of research on a global scale.

    Read more about Conquistare lo Spazio

  • Riscrivere la storia coloniale tramite l’uso dell’oralità

    2021. anna finozzi. Memoria y narración (2), 131-145

    Article

    The article examines the use of orality in Igiaba Scego’s novel Adua (2015). Traditionally, the postcolonial literary text is regarded as a ‘translation’ between two languages: the African oral one and the European written one. The aim of the article is to move the attention from orality as a sign of Otherness towards orality as transmission and re-telling; this critical shift is necessary as Italian postcolonial literature is often regarded more as a documentary text rather than a literary artefact. By relying on Memory Studies, and specifically on concepts such as Marianne Hirsch’s postmemory, Yael Zerubavel’s countermemory and Astrid Erll’s travelling memory, the analysis shows that Adua is built on the oral communication of memories through dialogues between different characters and other images connected to the act of listening and retelling. Eventually, the dichotomy orality-africanity is dismissed in favour of orality-transmission. 

    Read more about Riscrivere la storia coloniale tramite l’uso dell’oralità

  • Il canone pedagogico: insegnare la letteratura postcoloniale italiana all’estero

    2020. Anna Finozzi. Italianistica 2.0. Tradizione e innovazione, 307-318

    Chapter

    Come si inserisce la letteratura postcoloniale nei corsi di letteratura italiana? Quale è stata la sua ricezione e il suo sviluppo, e quale è lo spazio che occupa nel canone pedagogico e letterario universitario? E in che modo si pone in relazione alla letteratura italiana tout-court? L'articolo presenta uno studio qualitativo sull'insegnamento della letteratura postcoloniale italiana in tre università scandinave e analizza i risultati in una prospettiva transnazionale, sottolineando il ruolo cruciale dell'ampliamento di una postcolonial readership per la creazione di una società più inclusiva. 

    Read more about Il canone pedagogico: insegnare la letteratura postcoloniale italiana all’estero

  • Podcasting the Italian Postcolonial: An Analysis of Black Coffee and S/Confini

    2023. Anna Finozzi. The Italianist, 1-18

    Article

    This article examines two podcasts,Black CoffeeandS/Confini,authored by Italian second-generation migrants. Podcasting hasrecently been recognised as an independent medium that allowsunheard minorities’voices to emerge. The aim of the article istwofold. Firstly, it tackles the question to what extentBlack CoffeeandS/Confinican be understood as part of a bigger phenomenonof  an  online  presence  of  migrants  and  second-generationmigrants counter-narrating traditional Italian media, following thepostcolonial paradigm. Secondly, it reflects upon the effects ofthis phenomenon on contemporary Italian society. Being runmostly by women, and discussing topics such as race, Italianblackness,  migration,  and identity,  these  podcasts stand  incontrast to the Italian mainstream narrative still imprinted byracist stereotypes. Finally, I demonstrate that podcasts and virtualspaces created by the second generation not only are spaces aptfor the creation of a shared collective memory, but also foster apoliticalfight for equal rights.

    Read more about Podcasting the Italian Postcolonial: An Analysis of Black Coffee and S/Confini

  • Italian Studies across Disciplines: Interdisciplinarity, New Approaches, and Future Directions

    2022. Anna Finozzi.

    Book

    What does Italian Studies look like today and what scenarios should we expect in the near future? The aim of the volume is to encourage scholars coming from different backgrounds to tackle the discussions already begun on these questions. By selecting some of the most significant theoretical and methodological inputs to these multifaceted debates — Posthuman and Nonhuman Studies, New Materialism, Media Studies, Feminist Studies, Trauma Studies, Children’s Studies — applied to Italian cultural production, the book reflects on interdisciplinarity and collaboration, and suggests new perspectives on the future of Italian Studies as a lively field of research on a global scale.

    Read more about Italian Studies across Disciplines

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