California Italian Studies

As a metaphor, the intersection features in several contemporary autobiographical narratives that explore the social complexities of identity formation. Foregrounding both cultural hybridity and mechanisms of marginalization, this image captures the lived experiences of individuals who live across multiple communities. In my analysis of Kym Ragusa’s The Skin Between Us (2006), I bridge the study of life-writing and social theory to demonstrate how the author uses spatial forms of representation, including the crossroads and the map, to critique preconceived notions of race and belonging. Ragusa’s memoir confronts the several types of violence that occur at the junction between social structures, as it points to their ability to reproduce over time. By placing Ragusa’s understanding of identity as social position in relation with her interest in geo-historical stratifications, my reading suggests that her poetics of location opens onto a theory of implication, whereby subjects are constantly folded into structures from the past and are called to act upon them in the present.