Research: New Prophets: A Comparative Analysis of Prophetic Voices From Melville to Contemporary Native American Literature.
Martina Lombardo is a first-year PhD student enrolled in the program in English Literature, Language, and Translation Studies (curriculum in Literary and Cultural Studies) at Sapienza University of Rome, in joint collaboration with the University of Silesia in Katowice. In 2021, she earned her BA degree at Sapienza University of Rome in Lingue, Culture, Letterature e Traduzione, with a thesis that analyses the effects of the Black Lives Matter movement on the representation of the Black community in both literature, and television. In 2023, she obtained her master’s degree in English and Anglo-American Studies from Sapienza University of Rome, with a dissertation titled: “Can the Great American Novel Survive? Envisioning New Pathways in the XXI Century”, a comparative analysis of contemporary Black, Native American, and Hawaiian novels. During her MA, she spent six months studying abroad at the Technische Universität Dortmund, thanks to the Erasmus Program. Her current research focuses on prophetic voices in contemporary Native American literature, read in comparison to Melville’s Moby-Dick, chosen as an example for White literature. The research is aimed at analyzing the new connotations that such role takes on in these novels: fluidity, pluralism, and a healing quality. Her research interests include contemporary fiction written by authors of color, Gender Studies, Queer Studies, and Post-Colonial Studies.