Rereading Afropean Identities through Espérance Hakuzwimana’s Tutta intera

Abstract

This article investigates the term Afropean through an analysis of Espérance Hakuzwimana’s debut novel Tutta intera (2022). It aims to show how the novel, far from losing sight of the national context as the term Afropean implies, effectively mediates issues related to specific localities and temporalities (racist and racial configurations in Italy in the 2010s) and transnational influences (the European and North American experiences of colonialism and slavery). By exploring the intersection of Afropean and Afroitalian, the novel aims to decentre the notion of (white) Europeanness and Italianness while highlighting global articulations of Blackness. Space, language, and class will be key elements to demonstrate how the novel expands the boundaries of Afropean/Afropeanness beyond race to promote a more inclusive and intersectional understanding of the term.