Exposing and Exploring Modes of Motherhood: The Evolution of Motherwork in Igiaba Scego’s œuvre

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article discusses several of contemporary Italian writer Igiaba Scego’s literary works, from her 2003 children’s novella La nomade che amava Alfred Hitchcock [The Nomad Woman Who Loved Alfred Hitchcock] and her first 2004 novel Rhoda, to her latest novel, the 2020 work La linea del colore [The Colour Line]. I position this article as a tribute to scholar Adalgisa Giorgio and engage Giorgio’s reading of a story by Natalia Ginzburg in order to further my exploration of Scego’s work. Reading Scego through the lens of Ginzburg, I highlight Scego’s complex portrayals of women, focusing on the absence of the mother, on surrogate mother figures, and on relationships between women. Reading Scego through lenses suggested by Giorgio’s reading of Ginzburg, I establish common points between two Italian women writers from differing eras and contribute to the work of bringing recognition to writers such as Scego, who are often labelled under migration or G2 (second-generation migrant) epithets, as writers within the Italian literary canon.