Posthumous Selves

Abstract

The self-elegy is considered a hyper-literary genre which provides the readers with a self-portrait of the poets, while also discussing their own poetics and literary works. This article aims to re-map the genre of self-elegiac writing in contemporary Italy by focusing on two recently published collections: Patrizia Cavalli’s Vita meravigliosa (2020) and Biancamaria Frabotta’s Nessuno veda nessuno (2022). Both collections play with the genre of self-elegiac writing by trying to redefine its boundaries: first, both authors problematize the gender perspective intrinsic to the elegy; second, Cavalli and Frabotta delve into some of the canonical references and the structure of the elegiac genre; third, they insert their elegiac discourse within a global literary community.