Forms, Fragments and Fractures in Contemporary Women’s Life Writing: Spain, Portugal, and Italy

Fractured Autobiographies (1936-1975)

Cláudia Pazos Alonso (University of Oxford): ‘Life-writing as Funambulism during the Portuguese Dictatorship’
Mara Josi (University College Dublin): ‘Multifaceted, Fractured, and Torn Selves: Autobiographies of Lives in Hiding during the German Occupation of Italy’
Raquel Fernández Menéndez (University of Salamanca): ‘The Ethics of Diary Keeping: Narcissism and Vulnerability in Rosa Chacel’s Alcancía’

Cláudia Pazos Alonso (University of Oxford), ‘Life-writing as Funambulism during the Portuguese Dictatorship’
This talk presents an overview of women's life-writing in Portugal during the dictatorship and its immediate aftermath, a period notably book-ended by two highly experimental oeuvres:  Irene Lisboa’s pioneer engagement with free-floating modality of autofiction from 1936 onwards (across poetry; diary; novella) and the unclassifiable collective New Portuguese Letters (1972), straddling a variety of genres and voices within its pages. The latter was (in)famously censored, and its daring authors (Barreno; Horta; Velho da Costa) tried. In-between these landmark moments, I will consider a range of arguably lesser-known writers, such as Ilse Losa; Natalia Nunes; Maria Ondina Braga. All walked a tightrope between censorship and resistance in the 1940s, 50s and 60s, deftly playing with the fluidity of genre boundaries, in order to reflect on diverse female experiences of transnational mobility. As such, I seek to revisit their work through the concept of ‘funambulism’ (recently deployed by Elena Losada Soler in an earlier context).  My proposal is to consider to what extent their steadfast refusal to conform to the New State’s pillars of Deus, Patria, Familia becomes stylistically and formally interlaced, by virtue of necessity, with the practice of deambulation.
 
Mara Josi (University College Dublin), ‘Multifaceted, Fractured, and Torn Selves: Autobiographies of Lives in Hiding during the German Occupation of Italy’
During the German occupation of Italy (1943–1945), 81% of Jews survived by going into hiding (Picciotto 2017). The literary narratives documenting this experience, which are predominantly autobiographical, remain largely underexplored. Examining these texts not only deepens our understanding of the Holocaust-related experiences in Italy but also provides valuable insights into how the self is represented in literature after undergoing the profound disruption of assuming multiple identities to evade deportation. This paper analyses five autobiographical texts by Italian Jewish women recounting their experiences of hiding. These narratives are marked by fragmentation: the “narrated I” is torn; the “narrating I” is multifaceted. The proposed paper examines how this fragmentation is expressed in the domestic realm, understood as a physical space and familial and emotional bonds. Particular attention is paid to the shift in social and gender norms during the occupation, which both disoriented and liberated the authors. The first part of the paper looks at the collapse of the sense of protection and safety unconsciously ascribed to family life. It then examines how the traumas of persecution are declined into a sense of displacement, alienation and in-betweenness and how these feelings pervasively invade the alternative domesticities created in fortuitous dwellings. The second part focuses on the experience of homecoming after that of hiding and how the Holocaust-related traumas manifest in the domestic sphere.
 
Raquel Fernández Menéndez (University of Salamanca), ‘The Ethics of Diary Keeping: Narcissism and Vulnerability in Rosa Chacel’s Alcancía’
In 1982, Rosa Chacel published her diaries in a two-volume edition entitled Alcancía. Ida and Alcancía. Vuelta. These diaries were written over nearly four decades of exile following the end of the Spanish Civil War, a period that forced the writer to seek refuge in cities such as Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, and New York. Its publication by prestigious publishing house Seix Barral in the early years of Spanish democracy reaffirmed Chacel’s status as a prominent novelist, a recognition that came after her work had been largely overlooked during the Franco dictatorship. However, initial press reviews criticized the diaries for their perceived narcissism and for failing to offer insights into the Spanish Republican exile experience. Indeed, in a letter to the author, Javier Marías pointed to the theme of queja (complaint) —in his words, “something essential to women, something irremediable and inherent”—as the central aspect of the text. Drawing on Ángel Loureiro’s Levinasian perspective on autobiography—which views life-writing as an ethical act rooted in presenting oneself to the Other—I will argue that Chacel’s Alcancía invites a reevaluation of diary-keeping, challenging its perception as merely an egotistical form of writing defined by spontaneity and fragmentation. Specifically, I will explore the interplay between narcissism and vulnerability as key elements in reconstructing both individual and collective identities shaped by the Spanish Civil War and the Second World War.

All are welcome to attend this seminar, held online via zoom at 4.30pm GMT/5.30pm CET . Please register in advance to receive the booking link, by clicking Book Now at the top of this page.