«Nello schedario del mio cuore»: i romanzi di memoria di Giacoma Limentani

With this article I consider Giacoma Limentani’s Trilogia as a challenge to the myth of the Shoah  as one universal memory which left women underrepresented for a long time. I focus on Limentani’s reflections on the meaning and function of memory: with reference to In contumacia, Dentro la D and La spirale della tigre, I explore her journey from oppressive remembrance to a redeeming memory. In contumacia is written when the narration of childhood memories becomes an act of survival: the result is a fragmented novel affected by the consequences of trauma. Dentro la D focuses on her family inheritance and Jewish culture, by means of which she is able to preserve her dignity; the passing of time will help her to write La spirale della tigre, where spirals of memories wave together personal histories to the ones of the roman ghetto’s families. Private memory becomes collective memory, and, by narrating love and nostalgia for what has been erased by the Shoah, it can bring hope.