The Route to Transnational Womanliness in Nina Berberova’s The Italics are Mine(1969)

The Italics are Mine is not only an account of Berberova’s memories ofher emigrationfrom Russia through western Europe to the US. It isa narrative experiment whichdeconstructs social and literary conventions by usingdifferent narrative forms (see Russo 2020, 27; seealsoTodorov 1981, 95-6). The writer includes letters, essays, poems,and lists, so as to trace her past, as well as to relocate herselfin western Europe first, and in North America later.This studywill dwell on Berberova’s emigration to westernEurope and to the US and, in particular, on her memoirs of her journeys to the southern regions of theUS. In her descriptions of southernlandsof the US, shetends to show littlereticence about her sexual orientations (see Peterson2001,503). By consideringde Beauvoir’s remarks (1997, 20-34) on unequal relationshipsbetween men and women,and Kristeva’s theories (1994, 183-4) on the alienationof the self, this work aims to analyse Berberova’s physical and metaphorical transnational travelling(seeCronin 2009, 9; see Zaccaria 2017, 32-8),which leadsher to lookinto her inner world andto re-exploreher sexuality. Finally, the paperwillcentre onthe unpublished sequel to Berberova’s biography, “Deathbed Dialogues,”in order togive insight intothe writer’sdepiction of her achieved womanliness, of what being a woman means. Itwilldelve intoBerberova’stransculturalpassage to her North American identity (see Kalb 2001,141-46),bringingto lighther subversive attitude andhersexual orientation.