Oltre Babilonia ? Postcolonial Female Trajectories towards Nomadic Subjectivity

Abstract

This article focuses on female protagonists in and women writers of postcolonial Italian literature. Through Rosi Braidotti's figuration of 'nomadic subjectivity' and 'nomadic ethics', particular attention is given to the literary representation of female subjects in transition, especially in Igiaba Scego's latest novel Oltre Babilonia. The discussion is embedded in the postcolonial context with a rationale for the theoretical framework; an overview of female trajectories and themes in Italian postcolonial literature originating from the Horn of Africa; and a textual analysis of Scego's female protagonists in Oltre Babilonia. Driven by a desire for transformation, writers and their characters work through traumatic experiences critically, through oral or written narrations, in transit towards forms of nomadic subjectivity.