Gabriela Alexandra Banita | Università di Bologna (original) (raw)
Dottoranda in “Lingue, Letterature e Culture Moderne: diversità e inclusione” (curriculum “World Literature e studi postcoloniali”) presso l’Università Alma Mater Studiorum di Bologna, svolge la sua ricerca nell’ambito della letteratura della diaspora africana e degli studi postcoloniali. Precedentemente laureata presso l’Università degli Studi di Padova, ha approfondito la sua formazione presso l’Università di Leeds grazie a un soggiorno Erasmus. Attualmente, la sua ricerca verte sulla rappresentazione del ritorno nel paese d’origine nella letteratura africana anglofona, prodotta da autori diasporici contemporanei.
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Papers by Gabriela Alexandra Banita
From the European South, 2022
This article investigates the novella Song for Night (2007) by Chris Abani. Focusing on its form,... more This article investigates the novella Song for Night (2007) by Chris Abani. Focusing on its form, an exceedingly understudied aspect of the work, I argue that, in contrast to a widespread humanitarian praxis, the novella problematises clear-cut binary oppositions. Such problematisation arises from the use of topoi of binarisms such as victim vs. perpetrator, physicality vs. spirituality and life vs. death, which are eventually dismantled. Thematic duality reverberates on the stylistic level, characterised by a tension between literal and figurative interpretation. Thus, readers must juggle what initially appears as antithetical concepts and implement mediation. By triggering this process, Song for Night opens readers' eyes to complexity by criticising easy distinctions.
de genere - Rivista di studi letterari, postcoloniali e di genere, 2022
The article tackles the problem of refugees' representation by the cosmopolitans making up the po... more The article tackles the problem of refugees' representation by the cosmopolitans making up the postcolonial elite and the tension that such an operation engenders. Thereby, it offers a reading of Helon Habila's Travellers (2019), which depicts the encounter between the cosmopolitan protagonist and a number of refugees trying to make a new life in the city of Berlin. Employing Gikandi's critique of the cosmopolitan elitism characterising postcolonialism and its non-relation to the refugees' life experiences in Between Roots and Routes (2010), it will be argued that the novel explicitly presents what Durrant (2020) calls "the failure of registration" of the refugee life from a position of privilege. By rendering this occlusion visible, the author's representation tries to escape the danger of eliding the voices of the people represented.
From the European South, 2022
This article investigates the novella Song for Night (2007) by Chris Abani. Focusing on its form,... more This article investigates the novella Song for Night (2007) by Chris Abani. Focusing on its form, an exceedingly understudied aspect of the work, I argue that, in contrast to a widespread humanitarian praxis, the novella problematises clear-cut binary oppositions. Such problematisation arises from the use of topoi of binarisms such as victim vs. perpetrator, physicality vs. spirituality and life vs. death, which are eventually dismantled. Thematic duality reverberates on the stylistic level, characterised by a tension between literal and figurative interpretation. Thus, readers must juggle what initially appears as antithetical concepts and implement mediation. By triggering this process, Song for Night opens readers' eyes to complexity by criticising easy distinctions.
de genere - Rivista di studi letterari, postcoloniali e di genere, 2022
The article tackles the problem of refugees' representation by the cosmopolitans making up the po... more The article tackles the problem of refugees' representation by the cosmopolitans making up the postcolonial elite and the tension that such an operation engenders. Thereby, it offers a reading of Helon Habila's Travellers (2019), which depicts the encounter between the cosmopolitan protagonist and a number of refugees trying to make a new life in the city of Berlin. Employing Gikandi's critique of the cosmopolitan elitism characterising postcolonialism and its non-relation to the refugees' life experiences in Between Roots and Routes (2010), it will be argued that the novel explicitly presents what Durrant (2020) calls "the failure of registration" of the refugee life from a position of privilege. By rendering this occlusion visible, the author's representation tries to escape the danger of eliding the voices of the people represented.