In this article, we propose reading family novels in English from Goa, the former Portuguese colony in India (1510–1961), as a sequel to Goan literature in the Portuguese language to show that, rather than dying, Goan literature in the Portuguese language metamorphosed into Goan literature in English. We contend that this new group of authors writing in English resumed the narrative thread that had been left unfinished by the writers in Portuguese when the regime came to an end and English started taking the place of Portuguese. Hence, the family novel in English, whose cast of characters as well as chronotope very much resemble Goan literature in Portuguese, can be read as its continuation, showing, as Mani (2022) would have it, that the boundaries between languages are porous and flexible, and literary forms can become a common platform across communities and historical periods.
This article was published open access under a CC BY licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ .
Fogazzaro was very attentive to the ideation of female characters, to deconstructing misogynistic clich & eacute;s. The essay investigates the manifestations of psychological violence on women in Fogazzarian narrative. In the tales, there are many cases of pressure and tension in the family environment: the repudiation of daughters who do not conform to the expectations of the 'Padreterno' father ('Fedele', 'Il testamento dell'Orbo da Rettorgole' ['The Peasant's Will']); the psychological warfare suffered by the woman who returns to the family home following a marital crisis (Un'idea di Ermes Torranza ['An Idea of Hermes Torranza']); subjection to brutal life partners (Idillii spezzati ['Broken Idylls']); prejudices about women's education (Un'idea di Ermes Torranza, Malgari). The essay also focuses on Piccolo mondo moderno ['The Man of the World']; in this novel the female protagonist, Jeanne, faces the trauma of living with a 'vicious husband'. Fogazzaro's delicacy in dealing with this situation is remarkable.This article was published open access under a CC BY-NC-ND licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.
Comics offer a compelling medium for bearing witness to experiences of trauma, particularly in cases of gender-based violence. Through the interplay of images, text, and colour, comics can convey layered, affective narratives that move beyond depersonalized accounts. Io so’ Carmela is a striking example of this potential: a graphic biographical novel based on the diary of Carmela Cirella, a teenager who took her own life following multiple assaults. This article analyses the visual and verbal strategies used to represent Carmela’s story, reflecting on the power of comics to reframe female experiences of abuse. It argues that comics can function as a form of aesthetic witnessing, engaging readers with the wider consequences of gender-based violence. In doing so, they create a space for reclaiming agency and give voice to victims whose stories are often silenced or overlooked. This article was published open access under a CC BY licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ .
This study takes as point of departure the current discourse on the intersection between positivist science and literature in the late nineteenth century, as well as contemporary studies on sexuality and sexual trauma. It analyses a selection of short stories from Luigi Capuana’s collection Le appassionate and considers the role that nineteenth-century emergent sciences were playing in the consolidation/definitions of notions of femininities and masculinities and the challenges they posed to prior normative conceptions of gendered sexuality. It argues that the recurrent depictions of sexual violence and subjection in Le appassionate produce a complex portrayal of tensions and signs of rupture within the normative conception of gender roles and that the representation of malady does much more than just symbolize a punishing return to a prescriptive order. Focusing on female acts of resistance and on the kind of agency given to the female voice, it shows how Capuana’s representations of female neuroses reveal social and psychological malaise and become expressions of dissonance to the prevailing nation-building political, social, and cultural project for liberal Italy. This article was published open access under a CC BY-NC-ND licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ .
