Abstract:

That Italian society has become increasingly multicultural and multiethnic, affected by hybridisation phenomena as a result of migratory movements, is a matter of fact. The so-called second generations currently exceed one million, 22.7% of whom have citizenship according to the XXXI Immigrant Report by Caritas Italiana and Fondazione Migrantes published in November 2022.
Nevertheless, generations with a migrant background often experiment a peculiar condition suspended between belonging and not belonging, when not on the margins of an 'Italian identity', which hardly includes them as effective members. In other words, they embody the “abnormality" of being Italian, born and raised in Italy (or moved there at an early age), being trained in Italian schools but not recognized as Italian (Scego, 2019).
The present study focuses on this case of 'minority'. It wants to explore it from the point of view of young second-generation women writers, investigating their works from an intersectional perspective, and listening to their voices.
Borrowing from Honneth's theory of recognition (1996), and considering the profound connection between identity and recognition (Taylor, 2002) this study aims to face three issues: 1) testing whether a complex problem of recognition of their own intrinsic value is not at stake for these second-generation women authors; 2) exploring what forms of recognition can be claimed in their “struggle”; 3) identifying what themes and urgencies are pursued by them.
To this purpose, 56 works written by 28 young women authors have been mapped; after contacting them, 11 semi-structured interviews have been collected.
The second-generation female writing and testimony is deemed can offer a powerful tool to deconstruct narratives, which have rooted and validated prejudices, binary logics, hierarchies, privileges and injustices, racism and sexism towards a decolonisation of the gaze. This literature also displays a conception of belonging that goes beyond geographical and ethnic borders, and refuses to be categorized and boxed into labels pursuing instead the idea of a 'nomadic' subjectivity (Braidotti, 1995), neither monolithic nor definitive but constantly changing.
Literature has the power to show truths by telling stories and giving visibility to lives otherwise forced to the margins. By triggering a dialectic between the point of view of the reader and of the author, it teaches us to decentralise and give hospitality to what is other than ourselves. This 'pedagogical capacity' of literature, and also of testimony, is pursued by the women authors selected in the study. Part of their works are specifically tailored and written for childhood and adolescence to open minds and foster new awareness in the belief that small changes lead to larger ones, provided they are sown early and properly.

References:
[1] Braidotti, R. (1995). Soggetto nomade: femminismo e crisi della modernità. Donzelli.
[2] Honneth, A. (1996). The Struggle for Recognition: The Moral Grammar of Social Conflicts, The MIT Press.
[3] Scego, I. (2019). Future. Il domani narrato dalle voci di oggi. Effequ.
[4] Taylor, C. (4 ^ ed. 2002). La politica del riconoscimento. In J. Habermas, & C. Taylor, Multiculturalismo. Lotte per il riconoscimento, Feltrinelli.

Keywords:

Second generations, female writing, recognition, intersectionality, decolonisation.