The Literary and Human Legacy of Clara Sereni by Nicole Paronzini, Giulia Po DeLisle, Susan Briziarelli, Mirna Cicioni, Giovanna Miceli Jeffries, Simonetta Milli Konewko, Scott Lerner, Margherita Losacco, Puma Valentina Scricciolo, Giulia Po DeLisle, Susan Briziarelli

The Literary and Human Legacy of Clara Sereni

Edited by: Giulia Po DeLisle (University of Massachusetts, Lowell) and Susan Briziarelli (Adelphi University)

By: Nicole Paronzini, Giulia Po DeLisle (University of Massachusetts, Lowell), Susan Briziarelli (Adelphi University), Mirna Cicioni (Monash University, Melbourne), Giovanna Miceli Jeffries (University of Wisconsin, Madison), Simonetta Milli Konewko (University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee), and Scott Lerner (Franklin and Marshall College)

This extraordinary collection dedicated to internationally famed Clara Sereni promises to become the essential reference for understanding the rich breadth of this author’s creative works in Italian literature, society, and politics, as well as how they speak to issues of strong concern today. While drawing out the varied aspects of her legacy, the spectrum of readings by acclaimed experts includes personal essays, English translations of short stories, and acute studies on such formative elements in Sereni’s arts of writing and daily life as Jewish identity, mothering children with disabilities, music, generational foodways, memory, and ecology, which are examined in their microspatial and global dimensions. This singular volume will surely engage general readers and scholars interested in literature, gender studies, disability studies, anti-Fascism, social justice, and Jewish studies.

Robin Pickering-Iazzi

Professor Emerita of Italian and Comparative Literature

Department of Global Studies

University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee

This is a welcome and important contribution to the wide-ranging work of writer, intellectual and activist Clara Sereni. The multifaceted volume is an invaluable addition to the growing scholarship on Sereni and highlights the impact her work has had on global feminisms and practices.

Eugenia Paulicelli

Professor of Italian Studies

Queens College and The Graduate Center

The City University of New York

[...] the volume acts as an essential toolbox for understanding Sereni’s complexity, caught between the legacy of the Resistance, the drama of the Cold War, the trauma of the Lead Years, the rise of feminist consciousness, the needs of neurodiverse populations and their caregivers, and the rediscovery of food traditions. [...]

[Extract from book review on 'Annali d’italianistica' (Italian Studies Journal). Volume 43 (2025). PP. 736-738. Reviewer: Stefania Benini (Franklin & Marshall College) https://annali.org/volume-43-2025/ ]