Publications

In the field of cultural memory studies, the representation of trauma at the family level is certainly a central theme. Among the authors who have contributed most to this debate is the feminist scholar Marianne Hirsch who, starting in the 1990s, coined a concept that would later be globally recognized as one of the main paradigms for interpreting the mediation processes of the past: postmemory. How is the memory of a trauma transmitted at the family level? Is it right to talk about transmission? Or is it necessary to adopt a different perspective? What role do subsequent generations have who inherit trauma as a "family language"? What contribution can art make in the reconstruction of this difficult past? Starting from these questions, this book discusses the concept of postmemory from an interdisciplinary perspective, proposing for the first time to the Italian public the translation of three texts by Marianne Hirsch (one co-written with Leo Spitzer) that marked three fundamental moments in the evolution of the concept.

Studies on the social construction of masculinity draw inspiration from the definition of plural masculinities, proposed in the 1990s by Raewyn Connell in her «Masculinities». Following several critical rereadings of the proposed theoretical framework, Connell publishes two contributions that attempt to frame the concept of hegemonic masculinity in a contemporary sense and according to the challenges posed by the global world. Starting from the rereading of the texts of the Australian sociologist, proposed for the first time in Italian translation, the volume questions the new forms of masculinity fueled by the digital, with a specific focus on the forms of defensive masculinity constructed within the so-called «manosphere». The contemporary construction of masculinities also moves in the virtual territory, configuring a variegated, stratified and sometimes blurred fresco. The systematic theorization proposed by Connell constitutes a valid compass for orienting oneself within this variegated and complex geography.

How are migrations narrated and how is their memory transmitted? If the museum, the archive and the monument are the institutional forms of the memory of the nation-state, migratory movements challenge the social and semiotic framework within which the past is narrated and its memory is transmitted. Born from a project at the Emigration Research Centre of the Republic of San Marino and its Emigrant Museum, the volume collects ten contributions that reflect on the forms of public memory in the narration of migrations. The choice to bring together the points of view of scholars and cultural operators offers the reader a reflection on the ways of narrating and transmitting the memory of migrations in the contemporary world starting from case studies and concrete design experiences.