Phd in CIVILIZATIONS OF ASIA AND AFRICA

Research: Chengshi Manyouzhe 城市漫游者: Poetic Practices of an All-Female Poetry Collective in 21st Century China

Martina Benigni, Curriculum Eastern Asia, 38° Cycle

RESEARCH PROJECT'S ABSTRACT:

With the publication of the twenty poem cycle "Nüren" 女人 ("Woman", 1984) by Zhai Yongming 翟永明, a new discourse was established in Chinese poetry scene: "nüxing shige" 女性诗歌 ("women's poetry"). My research project, based on Professor Jeanne Hong Zhang's definition of this poetry discourse as "female-authored poems that deal with gender-based themes, experience and psychology in a distinctive language usage", aims to study its latest developments. I will focus on the production of a group of young women poets, seven, born in the Nineties, founded in Shanghai in 2016 with the name of Chengshi manyouzhe zhi shi 城市漫游者 (The Flâneuses). Particular attention will be devoted to the collective’s poetic practices, whose texts circulate across different channels and media, inheriting and re-actualising themes and styles from previous generations of women poets: their "sisters". Through textual analysis and the translation of a selected corpus of poems, this study seeks to highlight both their literary value and the sociocultural context in which they are situated, with a specific focus on the relationship between women and the city. At the same time, it aims to develop a critical reflection on the relationship between the digital sphere - given that the collective publishes primarily on Chinese social media platforms-, contemporary poetry, and an engagement with the most pressing issues of the present, such as the environmental crisis.

03/2023- today: PhD candidate at the Italian Insittute of Oriental Studies (ISO), Sapienza University of Rome

Research Project's Title: "City's flâneuses": an overview of contemporary Chinese women's poetry in the 21st Century

Superisor: Alessandra Brezzi (Sapienza University of Rome); Co-Supervisor: Silvia Pozzi, (University of Milano-Bicocca)

03/2023- today: PhD candidate at Italian Insittute of Oriental Studies (ISO), Sapienza University of Rome
02/2022-02/2023: Second Level Master's Degree in Specialized Translation, Sapienza University of Rome
10/2019-01/2022: Master's Degree in Oriental Languages and Civilizations, Sapienza University of Rome
10/2015-12/2018: Bacherol's Degree in Languages, Cultures, Literatures and Translation, Sapienza University of Rome