Dissertations
1. In-Between Spaces, Corporeality, and Gender in the Literary Works of Postmigrant Authors of Muslim Descent: A Comparative Study of Francophone, Italophone, and Germanophone Literatures
PhD Student: Gloria Coscia
Primary Supervisor: Hubert Roland
This thesis undertakes a comparative study of literary works by postmigrant authors of Muslim descent, writing in French, German, and Italian. Alongside an analysis of these narratives through the lens of postmigrant perspectives, the research also engages with questions surrounding processes of racialisation and sexisation within transcultural contexts. It explores, among other aspects, the deconstruction of binary gender oppositions and the critique of classical models of identity and culture, which are often misused as tools of homogenisation. Postcolonial and intersectional theories are drawn upon and adapted to illuminate the specific issues addressed in the study.
As the thesis is situated within a multilingual framework, particular attention is paid to the relationship the protagonists maintain with both the heritage language of their parents and the language of the European country in which they were raised and educated. The aim is to examine how the fluidity of postmigrant identities is expressed in the literary form of the texts.
Finally, the research investigates the influence of space on the protagonists, with a particular focus on the divisions between the European country and the country of parental origin, as well as between urban centres and peripheral areas. The analysis also considers the individual’s positioning in relation to the collective.
2. Embodied Heterogeneous Cultural Dispositions and the Expression of Masculinities in Autobiographical Narratives by Francophone Authors of Muslim Descent
PhD Student: Serena Finotello
Primary Supervisor: Brigitte Maréchal
This thesis aims to cross-analyze a selection of autobiographical novels by Francophone postmigrant authors of Muslim descent, alongside interviews with the authors themselves, including Magyd Cherfi, Kenan Görgün, and Ismaël Saidi.
Theoretically, this project aligns with Bernard Lahire’s “dispositionalist and contextualist” framework (1998, 2013). According to this approach, social actors, shaped by various socialization contexts, internalize diverse—even contradictory—schemas of action. These schemas are then reappropriated and either activated or set aside depending on the specific situations they encounter.
We propose the study of a “plural man” (Lahire, 2016), one who has navigated multiple socializing contexts and embodies a diverse array of dispositions and condensed experiences that are not always compatible. More specifically, the research examines expressions of masculinities as a central theme in the writings of postmigrant authors, exploring how inherited models are reinterpreted and transformed through the lens of family, cultural, and religious heritage.
Methodologically, the research adopts a diachronic approach, alternating between literary analysis and interviews. By employing grounded theory analysis, integrated with structural content analysis, it aims to identify not only changes but also potential dissonances, challenges, ambiguities, and ambivalences.
3. Postmigrant Rap. Language, Metaphor and Signifyin(g) Practices in British and Italian Rap : A Comparative Study of Debut Albums by Male Artists (2017-2022)
PhD Student: Letizia Sassi
Primary Supervisor: Costantino Maeder
This dissertation introduces a new postmigrant framework for reading cultural productions beyond purely biographical, thematic, or sociological terms. By decoupling postmigration from an author’s background, it redefines the concept not as a demographic label, but as a sovereign, critical method of textual analysis. This framework is put into practice through a comparative, musicological study of a bilingual European rap corpus featuring three Italian artists (Mahmood, Ghali, Baby Gang) and three British ones (J Hus, Dave, Central Cee).
The study develops along three main lines. First, it examines “structural aphasia,” showing how silence, noise, and opacity act as deliberate literary tactics to disrupt standard communication. Second, it dismantles the meritocratic premise of the “life is a journey” cognitive metaphor, tracing a shift from forced spatial immobility in the margins to an interiorized, sovereign psychological composure. Third, it merges Henry Louis Gates Jr.’s vernacular revision with Naika Foroutan’s dynamics of postmigrant interaction to formulate the concept of postmigrant signifyin(g).
Ultimately, these artists do more than just adapt a global genre. By “signifying with” the traditional cultural canon, they reshape the national fabric from its very center. The dissertation contributes to both Postmigration Studies and Popular Music Studies by demonstrating how these creators exercise full discursive sovereignty, actively shaping a new, pluralistic European imaginary.