Abstract: Drawing on Edward W. Soja?s radical critique to the prevailing narrative of history in social
theory, this paper investigates how two novels on Italian/American ethnic identity are distinctively
spatialized. The analysis focuses on the characters? different experiences and perceptions of space,
which attest to the interplay of identity and spatial production, paying attention to agency and spatial
stories that are specifically localized. By using theory on the (re)production of space, this paper analyzes
how urban representational and material patterns relate to social division, in terms of ethnicity and
gender, and how the perpetuation of inequality is spatially enacted. Particularly, it examines the key
gendered urban layout that is revealed in how women are often ?in transit? (Gómez-Reus and Glifford
2013), ?out of place? (McDowell 1997) or in fear (Valentine 1989; Pain 2001) in the ?embodied spaces?
of the streets (Tonkiss 2005). Through two texts of early Italian/American fiction, this paper addresses
the spatial practices, as well as restrictions, of the embodied racialized and gendered subject. To this
end, the figure of the ethnic flâneuse (Carrera-Suárez 2015) represents a suitable object of study on
embodied spatiality which serves to subvert traditional intersectional constraints of spatial design and
discourse.
Fuente: Complutense Journal of English Studies, 2019, 27, 293-315
Editorial: Servicio de Publicaciones de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid
Año de publicación: 2019
Nº de páginas: 23
Tipo de publicación: Artículo de Revista
DOI: 10.5209/cjes.61462
ISSN: 2386-6624,2386-3935