Face to Face with the Natural Environment: A Look at African Literature

Graziella Acquaviva; Cecilia Mignanti

doi:10.13135/1825-263X/3758

Authors

Graziella Acquaviva University of Turin
Cecilia Mignanti University of Turin

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.13135/1825-263X/3758

Keywords:

environment, ecopoetry, climate change, African literatures

Abstract

Human impact on natural environment has seriously increased over the last few centuries. However, it is only from the mid-twentieth century that a greater sensitivity has developed around environmental problems. With an eye on the development of the African environmentalism, the paper considers the reaction of some African writers and their efforts towards the conservation of physical environment and climate change through their literary works as narrative and poetry genres.

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Author Biographies

Graziella Acquaviva, University of Turin

Graziella Acquaviva holds a PhD in African Studies from the University of Naples “L’Orientale” and is currently a fixed-term (Senior) Researcher in Swahili Language and Literature at the University of Turin. She has done extensive field research in Tanzania and Kenya on Swahili popular literature and has many publications in the field of African literature. She has translated Collodi’s Le avventure di Pinocchio: Storia di un burattino (1883) and Carofiglio’s Testimone inconsapevole (2002) from Italian into Swahili (Hekaya za Pinokio and Shahidi asiyekusudiwa). She teaches Swahili Language, culture and literature at the University of Turin. Graziella can be reached at: graziella.acquaviva@unito.it.

Cecilia Mignanti, University of Turin

Cecilia Mignanti received her BA degree in Swahili Language and Literature at the University of Turin early in 2019. She has studied and done fieldwork in Iringa, Tanzania, focusing on the Swahili language and the customs, cultures and history of East African peoples. She is presently doing a MA in African and Asian studies at the University of Turin.

Cecilia can be reached at: mignanza@gmail.com.

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