Illusions and Memory in Anna Messina’s Cronache del Nilo

Document Type : Original Article

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Italian Department - Al-Alsun - Ain Shams University

Abstract

This paper analyses Anna Messina’s Cronache del Nilo (1940) which portrays her memories of the complex and dynamic community of the city of Alexandria in Egypt after the First World War and during the Italian fascist period. Anna Messina, daughter of an Italian diplomat, in this collection of short stories, captures the peculiarities of the multicultural and multinational community of Alexandria with its economic and racial stratifications during that period. This study starts by portraying how Messina’s consciousness of her own childish illusions regarding her identity and what she calls her homeland plays a role in the revisiting of her memories. Through a close reading of the text, this paper displays examples of various characters’ struggles, solidarity, and disillusions, Messina included. After discussing previous papers which study Cronache del Nilo, this paper analyses the terms “stability”, “tranquility” and “protection” as they occur in historical texts and in diplomatic communications. The struggles of various characters, including Messina, unmask illusions portrayed in the British and Italian colonial discourses of that period.

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