Paola Della Valle | Università degli Studi di Torino (original) (raw)
Books by Paola Della Valle
Stevenson nel Pacifico: una lettura postcoloniale
La produzione di R.L. Stevenson sui o nei “mari del Sud” è sicuramente la meno nota. Spesso la cr... more La produzione di R.L. Stevenson sui o nei “mari del Sud” è sicuramente la meno nota. Spesso la critica se ne è occupata più per i risvolti biografici che per quelli letterari, costruendo il mito dello scrittore auto-esiliatosi dall’Europa in cerca di salute. Eppure, opere come “The Beach of Falesà”, The Ebb-Tide o In the South Seas mostrano uno Stevenson nuovo: realista, lontano dall’ adventure romance cui la sua figura è maggiormente legata e capace di aprirsi all’ascolto dell’“altro” da sé. Stevenson denuncia la corruzione e decadenza dell’Occidente nelle periferie degli imperi, descrive con laicità lo scontro tra culture diverse e gli effetti sconcertanti della presenza occidentale sulle popolazioni indigene, anticipando concetti e immagini che saranno utilizzati un secolo dopo dalla critica postcoloniale. E prevede non solo l’avvento di un mondo globalizzato ma anche la crisi del suo modello economico-finanziario.
From Silence to Voice: the Rise of Maori Literature
Before the 1970s, Maori existed in New Zealand literature as figures created by Pakeha writers. ... more Before the 1970s, Maori existed in New Zealand
literature as figures created by Pakeha writers. The
Maori Renaissance changed all that. Fiction writers led
by Witi Ihimaera and Patricia Grace challenged earlier
stereotypes and literary forms, creating a new body of
writing that has redefined the Maori in literature.
From Silence to Voice portrays the early ‘silence’ of
Maori in New Zealand literature – characterised in
caricature by colonial writers, then in increasingly
sympathetic portraits from the likes of Frank
Sargeson, Janet Frame and Noel Hilliard – through
to the new and challenging works presented by Maori
writers themselves.
The largest part of the book is devoted to the
Maori ‘voice’, in a close critical analysis of Ihimaera’s
and Grace’s major works. Della Valle brings an
insightful post-colonial perspective to the subject,
while also offering revealing discussion of links with
the literature and culture of Italy.
Papers by Paola Della Valle
Navigating Chamoru Poetry: Indigeneity, Aesthetics, and Decolonization, Craig Santos Perez (2021)
Journal of New Zealand & Pacific studies, Dec 1, 2023
Community and Tribal Gardens in Aotearoa New Zealand: Some Literary Images
A Call to Arms for the Earth. Environmental Poetry in Aotearoa New Zealand and the Pacific Islands: The Case of the Anthology No Other Place to Stand
Altre Modernità, Jun 1, 2024
Contemporary age narrative in Aotearoa New Zealand
Bloomsbury Academic eBooks, 2023
Domestic Intelligence: A Gender Analysis of Stella Rimington's Spy Stories
Ecopsychology in J.G. Ballard's Fiction
Altre Modernità
The global pandemic, with its multiple and far-reaching disruptions, has forced us to rethink and... more The global pandemic, with its multiple and far-reaching disruptions, has forced us to rethink and rewrite the world we live in. Chris Baker’s novel Kokopu Dreams (2000) sounds somehow prophetic today in the aftermath of the Covid-19 crisis. His work could be labelled as “speculative fiction” and placed among the umbrella categories of magic realism, science fiction and post-apocalyptic fiction. Set in Aotearoa New Zealand, the story focuses on the life of the few human survivors of a rapidly-spreading deadly illness caused by the rabbit calicivirus, illegally introduced into the country. The calicivirus has mutated and killed almost all the human population, who is now living in a land controlled by animals and spirits. The novel is also a template of transcultural writing, mixing Māori creation stories, Christian and Celtic mythologies, scientific issues and aspects of everyday life. Having grown up in a contact zone of different cultures―Baker is of Polynesian (Samoan), Anglo-Saxo...
A Little Book with a Wide Perspective: Stevenson’s A Footnote to History
'I am not a slave... I will be worthy of my native land': Italian Melodrama as Resistance Strategy in Witi Ihimaera's Work
Abstract: The trivialization of Pacific Islanders’ existence, exposed in travel books and fiction... more Abstract: The trivialization of Pacific Islanders’ existence, exposed in travel books and fiction on the ‘South Seas’ from the late 18th century to the present, includes a view of Polynesian women as sexually saturated figures, in which exoticism and eroticism overlap. The theories of anthropologists, synthesized in the Mead-Freeman
controversy on female sexuality in Samoa, reflect an instrumental use of indigenous cultures to demonstrate preconceptual hypotheses. Samoan writer Sia Figiel has been one of the first Pacific Islands women to offer an insider representation of Pacific femininity. Her works reflect the “decolonial turn” advocated by Maria Lugones
to reject the hierarchical dichotomies and categorial logic of the Western episteme and affirm that “fractured locus” which allows multiple ontological presuppositions. Her latest novel Freelove (2016), analysed in this article, is centred on the coming of age of a Samoan girl in the 1980s and offers an unprecedented viewpoint on Samoan female sexuality, from an indigenous perspective.
Italian images and symbols are numerous in contemporary New Zealand literature. A basic distincti... more Italian images and symbols are numerous in contemporary New Zealand literature. A basic distinction must however be drawn between Pākehā writers, that is, New Zealanders of European origin, and writers belonging to the indigenous minority: the Māori. Italy has aroused a different emotional response and its imagery has served (or not) a political purpose according to the author’s affiliation to the group of the colonizers or that of the colonised. In this article I will analyse how Italian images are employed by two living Māori writers, Witi Ihimaera and Patricia Grace, and by a Pākehā poet, Allen Curnow, passed away in 2001. In particular, I will focus on whether these images pertain to a common system of values and on the extent to which they are functional to the dominant discourse or constitute a means of subversion of it.
Antroposcenari. Storie, paesaggi, ecologie
Le Simplegadi, 2016
Tra i numerosi testi sulla partecipazione australiana e neozelandese alla Grande Guerra, Passport... more Tra i numerosi testi sulla partecipazione australiana e neozelandese alla Grande Guerra, Passport to Hell (1936) di Robin Hyde è considerato uno dei romanzi migliori. Ispirato a una storia vera, quella dell'eroe di guerra ed ex ragazzo di riformatorio Douglas Stark, esso indaga la realtà dietro la quintessenza del soldato perfetto. Stark è un emarginato con un passato di violenza che in battaglia si tramuta in eroismo, un ribelle il cui disprezzo per il pericolo e la disciplina diventa una risorsa inestimabile. In questo preciso "discours" (secondo il concetto di Foucault) la violenza è un valore da manipolare e trasformare in strategia di guerra.
Trees in Literatures and the Arts. HumanArboreal Perspectives in the Anthropocene
Lexington Books – Rowman & Littlefield, 2021
Le Simplegadi, 2018
The themes of identity, belonging and its reverse, exclusion, have always been central to Caryl P... more The themes of identity, belonging and its reverse, exclusion, have always been central to Caryl Phillips' works of non-fiction and fiction. In particular, some essays published in two collections, A New World Order (2001) and Colour Me English (2011), and the novel A Distant Shore (2003) investigate to which extent refugees and immigrants are redesigning a new order in the modern globalised world and new notions of belonging and identification based on cultural plurality. In my article I will show the evolution of Phillips' view on these topics in the first decade of the new millennium, with particular reference to the above-mentioned texts. L'identità, l'appartenenza e il suo opposto, l'esclusione, sono temi di grande rilevanza nella saggistica e narrativa di Caryl Phillips. In particolare, alcuni saggi pubblicati in due raccolte, A New World Order (2001) e Colour Me English (2011), e il romanzo A Distant Shore (2003) esplorano in che modo immigrati e rifugiati stiano ridisegnando un nuovo ordine nel moderno mondo globalizzato e nuovi concetti di appartenenza e identificazione fondati sulla pluralità culturale. L'articolo seguirà l'evoluzione del pensiero di Phillips nel primo decennio del nuovo millennio, concentrandosi in particolare sui testi sopra indicati. Most of Caryl Phillips' works, be they drama, fiction or non-fiction, are centred on the notion of belonging and identity of the migrating subject. Born on the Caribbean island of St. Kitts in 1958, Phillips was brought to the UK by his parents when he was four months old and raised in the industrial north of England, precisely in Leeds. 1 Throughout his infancy and adolescence, although he had a British passport, was an Anglican churchgoer and proficient in English, he felt a deep sense of exclusion and un-belonging in British society. As the author underlined, he and his two younger brothers were the only black children both at primary school and Leeds Central High School. They survived being victims of bullying and abuse because they "knew when to fight and […] when to run" (Phillips 2011: 3). Phillips studied at Queen's College, Oxford, and later moved to London, but the sense of racial isolation is something that has accompanied him throughout his life, despite the changes that were turning Britain into a multi-cultural society. In the late 1980s, following the advent of what
Stevenson nel Pacifico: una lettura postcoloniale
La produzione di R.L. Stevenson sui o nei “mari del Sud” è sicuramente la meno nota. Spesso la cr... more La produzione di R.L. Stevenson sui o nei “mari del Sud” è sicuramente la meno nota. Spesso la critica se ne è occupata più per i risvolti biografici che per quelli letterari, costruendo il mito dello scrittore auto-esiliatosi dall’Europa in cerca di salute. Eppure, opere come “The Beach of Falesà”, The Ebb-Tide o In the South Seas mostrano uno Stevenson nuovo: realista, lontano dall’ adventure romance cui la sua figura è maggiormente legata e capace di aprirsi all’ascolto dell’“altro” da sé. Stevenson denuncia la corruzione e decadenza dell’Occidente nelle periferie degli imperi, descrive con laicità lo scontro tra culture diverse e gli effetti sconcertanti della presenza occidentale sulle popolazioni indigene, anticipando concetti e immagini che saranno utilizzati un secolo dopo dalla critica postcoloniale. E prevede non solo l’avvento di un mondo globalizzato ma anche la crisi del suo modello economico-finanziario.
From Silence to Voice: the Rise of Maori Literature
Before the 1970s, Maori existed in New Zealand literature as figures created by Pakeha writers. ... more Before the 1970s, Maori existed in New Zealand
literature as figures created by Pakeha writers. The
Maori Renaissance changed all that. Fiction writers led
by Witi Ihimaera and Patricia Grace challenged earlier
stereotypes and literary forms, creating a new body of
writing that has redefined the Maori in literature.
From Silence to Voice portrays the early ‘silence’ of
Maori in New Zealand literature – characterised in
caricature by colonial writers, then in increasingly
sympathetic portraits from the likes of Frank
Sargeson, Janet Frame and Noel Hilliard – through
to the new and challenging works presented by Maori
writers themselves.
The largest part of the book is devoted to the
Maori ‘voice’, in a close critical analysis of Ihimaera’s
and Grace’s major works. Della Valle brings an
insightful post-colonial perspective to the subject,
while also offering revealing discussion of links with
the literature and culture of Italy.
Navigating Chamoru Poetry: Indigeneity, Aesthetics, and Decolonization, Craig Santos Perez (2021)
Journal of New Zealand & Pacific studies, Dec 1, 2023
Community and Tribal Gardens in Aotearoa New Zealand: Some Literary Images
A Call to Arms for the Earth. Environmental Poetry in Aotearoa New Zealand and the Pacific Islands: The Case of the Anthology No Other Place to Stand
Altre Modernità, Jun 1, 2024
Contemporary age narrative in Aotearoa New Zealand
Bloomsbury Academic eBooks, 2023
Domestic Intelligence: A Gender Analysis of Stella Rimington's Spy Stories
Ecopsychology in J.G. Ballard's Fiction
Altre Modernità
The global pandemic, with its multiple and far-reaching disruptions, has forced us to rethink and... more The global pandemic, with its multiple and far-reaching disruptions, has forced us to rethink and rewrite the world we live in. Chris Baker’s novel Kokopu Dreams (2000) sounds somehow prophetic today in the aftermath of the Covid-19 crisis. His work could be labelled as “speculative fiction” and placed among the umbrella categories of magic realism, science fiction and post-apocalyptic fiction. Set in Aotearoa New Zealand, the story focuses on the life of the few human survivors of a rapidly-spreading deadly illness caused by the rabbit calicivirus, illegally introduced into the country. The calicivirus has mutated and killed almost all the human population, who is now living in a land controlled by animals and spirits. The novel is also a template of transcultural writing, mixing Māori creation stories, Christian and Celtic mythologies, scientific issues and aspects of everyday life. Having grown up in a contact zone of different cultures―Baker is of Polynesian (Samoan), Anglo-Saxo...
A Little Book with a Wide Perspective: Stevenson’s A Footnote to History
'I am not a slave... I will be worthy of my native land': Italian Melodrama as Resistance Strategy in Witi Ihimaera's Work
Abstract: The trivialization of Pacific Islanders’ existence, exposed in travel books and fiction... more Abstract: The trivialization of Pacific Islanders’ existence, exposed in travel books and fiction on the ‘South Seas’ from the late 18th century to the present, includes a view of Polynesian women as sexually saturated figures, in which exoticism and eroticism overlap. The theories of anthropologists, synthesized in the Mead-Freeman
controversy on female sexuality in Samoa, reflect an instrumental use of indigenous cultures to demonstrate preconceptual hypotheses. Samoan writer Sia Figiel has been one of the first Pacific Islands women to offer an insider representation of Pacific femininity. Her works reflect the “decolonial turn” advocated by Maria Lugones
to reject the hierarchical dichotomies and categorial logic of the Western episteme and affirm that “fractured locus” which allows multiple ontological presuppositions. Her latest novel Freelove (2016), analysed in this article, is centred on the coming of age of a Samoan girl in the 1980s and offers an unprecedented viewpoint on Samoan female sexuality, from an indigenous perspective.
Italian images and symbols are numerous in contemporary New Zealand literature. A basic distincti... more Italian images and symbols are numerous in contemporary New Zealand literature. A basic distinction must however be drawn between Pākehā writers, that is, New Zealanders of European origin, and writers belonging to the indigenous minority: the Māori. Italy has aroused a different emotional response and its imagery has served (or not) a political purpose according to the author’s affiliation to the group of the colonizers or that of the colonised. In this article I will analyse how Italian images are employed by two living Māori writers, Witi Ihimaera and Patricia Grace, and by a Pākehā poet, Allen Curnow, passed away in 2001. In particular, I will focus on whether these images pertain to a common system of values and on the extent to which they are functional to the dominant discourse or constitute a means of subversion of it.
Antroposcenari. Storie, paesaggi, ecologie
Le Simplegadi, 2016
Tra i numerosi testi sulla partecipazione australiana e neozelandese alla Grande Guerra, Passport... more Tra i numerosi testi sulla partecipazione australiana e neozelandese alla Grande Guerra, Passport to Hell (1936) di Robin Hyde è considerato uno dei romanzi migliori. Ispirato a una storia vera, quella dell'eroe di guerra ed ex ragazzo di riformatorio Douglas Stark, esso indaga la realtà dietro la quintessenza del soldato perfetto. Stark è un emarginato con un passato di violenza che in battaglia si tramuta in eroismo, un ribelle il cui disprezzo per il pericolo e la disciplina diventa una risorsa inestimabile. In questo preciso "discours" (secondo il concetto di Foucault) la violenza è un valore da manipolare e trasformare in strategia di guerra.
Trees in Literatures and the Arts. HumanArboreal Perspectives in the Anthropocene
Lexington Books – Rowman & Littlefield, 2021
Le Simplegadi, 2018
The themes of identity, belonging and its reverse, exclusion, have always been central to Caryl P... more The themes of identity, belonging and its reverse, exclusion, have always been central to Caryl Phillips' works of non-fiction and fiction. In particular, some essays published in two collections, A New World Order (2001) and Colour Me English (2011), and the novel A Distant Shore (2003) investigate to which extent refugees and immigrants are redesigning a new order in the modern globalised world and new notions of belonging and identification based on cultural plurality. In my article I will show the evolution of Phillips' view on these topics in the first decade of the new millennium, with particular reference to the above-mentioned texts. L'identità, l'appartenenza e il suo opposto, l'esclusione, sono temi di grande rilevanza nella saggistica e narrativa di Caryl Phillips. In particolare, alcuni saggi pubblicati in due raccolte, A New World Order (2001) e Colour Me English (2011), e il romanzo A Distant Shore (2003) esplorano in che modo immigrati e rifugiati stiano ridisegnando un nuovo ordine nel moderno mondo globalizzato e nuovi concetti di appartenenza e identificazione fondati sulla pluralità culturale. L'articolo seguirà l'evoluzione del pensiero di Phillips nel primo decennio del nuovo millennio, concentrandosi in particolare sui testi sopra indicati. Most of Caryl Phillips' works, be they drama, fiction or non-fiction, are centred on the notion of belonging and identity of the migrating subject. Born on the Caribbean island of St. Kitts in 1958, Phillips was brought to the UK by his parents when he was four months old and raised in the industrial north of England, precisely in Leeds. 1 Throughout his infancy and adolescence, although he had a British passport, was an Anglican churchgoer and proficient in English, he felt a deep sense of exclusion and un-belonging in British society. As the author underlined, he and his two younger brothers were the only black children both at primary school and Leeds Central High School. They survived being victims of bullying and abuse because they "knew when to fight and […] when to run" (Phillips 2011: 3). Phillips studied at Queen's College, Oxford, and later moved to London, but the sense of racial isolation is something that has accompanied him throughout his life, despite the changes that were turning Britain into a multi-cultural society. In the late 1980s, following the advent of what
Le Simplegadi, 2014
In Culture and Imperialism Said examines the relationship between the European cultural productio... more In Culture and Imperialism Said examines the relationship between the European cultural production and the growth and maintenance of colonial empires. The fictional sub-genre that probably most promoted imperial ideology is the adventure romance, with its triumphant view of the deeds of European pioneers. R. L. Stevenson was celebrated as one of its undisputed masters but, surprisingly, his late writings set in the South Pacific show a very critical attitude towards Western imperialism. My article will offer a postcolonial reading of some of these works, whose value has often been underestimated and which need to be seen from a new perspective.
Le Simplegadi
The mana wāhine movement can be seen as a Māori version of ecofeminism. This definition, however,... more The mana wāhine movement can be seen as a Māori version of ecofeminism. This definition, however, limits its valence and profound meaning, which can be understood only in the light of a different cultural paradigm. The poetry collection Tātai Whetū, in Māori and English, translated into Italian in the volume Matariki, sciame di stelle, exemplifies writing in the tradition of mana wāhine, that is, a literary genre that inflects political activism, environmentalism, feminism and a deep bond with Māori cultural roots