Photographs and Family Narratives in Marilena Umuhoza Delli’s Negretta. Baci razzisti and Pizza Mussolini
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 19225845 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Chiara Giuliani (0000-0002-6631-7196, University College Cork, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Pages | 1-18 |
| Publication date | 2026-06-08 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Italian Culture (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1559-0909 • E-ISSN: 0161-4622 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/01614622.2026.2664977 |
| OpenAlex | W7163896325 |
| Language | IT |
| References cited | 13 |
The article investigates the role of photographs in rearticulating family dynamics in Marilena Umuhoza Delli’s Negretta. Baci razzisti (2020) and Pizza Mussolini (2023). The two books narrate the story of Marilena, a young Italian-Rwandan woman, and, in the case of Pizza Mussolini, also of her half-sister Luna. Marilena discovers the existence of Luna through a photograph that her father, Giuseppe, a former missionary priest, has kept hidden. Luna, the daughter of Giuseppe and a Malawian woman, uses photographs to find out more about her father, whom she has only met once. Through the examination of these photos, specifically of their referent, their materiality, their placing, and their social lives, the article explores the ways in which photographs, as ekphrastic presences in the texts, prompt the protagonists to listen to them and to the story they tell. This practice of listening will eventually compel the protagonists to intervene, questioning the knowledge of their family and redefining their role within it
Active listening · Daughter · Line drawings · Narrative · Autobiographical and Biographical Writing · Photography and Visual Culture · Semiotics and Representation Studies
Objects of Affect
The cultural biography of things
Introduction
The Generation of Postmemory
Photos in Wiradjuri Biscuit Tins
Visible Lives
Photographs and the Sound of History
Children as Protagonists in Colonial History
Did You Know My Father
Absent Histories and Absent Images
Documenting the Fictions of Reality
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |