Revisiting Italian Colonialism: Transgenerational Trauma in Adua by Igiaba Scego

Abstract

Migration, racial injustice, and history intersect at the center of Igiaba Scego's novel Adua, which not only presents the marginally discussed topic of Italian colonialism but also calls into question the relationship between Italian colonialism and history in connection with trauma. This article focuses on the passing of trauma from father to daughter, tracing the pathways of what scholars have called transgenerational trauma. In particular, I rely on Joshua Pederson's framework to locate trauma within literary texts, focusing on the dissociative moments of the father figure whose dreams, visions, and premonitions become the locus of trauma. From there, I use clinical psychology and psychiatry to identify the symptoms of trauma and analyze their continual effects on the novel's protagonist, Adua. By linking Italian colonialism to the postcolonial period, I argue that Scego frames Italian colonialism as part of a legacy, one that does not come to a full stop at the end of World War II but rather has a lasting, continual impact on Italian society and the subsequent generations of those who were subjugated under Italian colonialism.