Corpi fantasmi : struttura e funzione della memoria transculturale nell’opera di Elvira Dones e Igiaba Scego

Abstract

Several recent works by transcultural writers have employed the powerful narrative device of witnessing ‘by proxy’ through juxtapositioning contemporary migration narratives with the haunting memory of past atrocities. The two examples explored in the present article (Elvira Dones, I mari ovunque, 2007 and Igiaba Scego, Oltre Babilonia, 2008) specifically interweave their narratives with references to the memory of the state murder of alleged dissidents in Argentina from 1976 to 1979; victims who were henceforth referred to ‘the disappeared’ (los desaparecidos). Making reference to criticism by Susan Gubar, Michael Rothberg and James Rosenau, I will question what resonance this figure of the missing, or haunting body has for recent migration narratives, particularly within the context of frequent contemporary fatalities during Mediterranean sea-crossings, and assess the impact this temporal and intra-national interweaving may have on the potential critical construction of a ‘transnational’ memory.