Early Childhood Mathematics Learning in Realistic Mathematical Education (RME)

SALICE, Giampaolo (a cura di): La terra ai forestieri. Pacini Editore, Pisa, 2019, pp. 165-201, 2019

Ariosto e gli antichi. Riscritture dei classici nell'"Orlando furioso", 2022

The Text, 2024

Racism made its foray into America as early as the 16th century, and it is still found in the texture of American culture and society. It still continues to assume multifarious forms of racial animosity and racial inequality in the 21st century. Enduring centuries of slavery, physical exploitation, and social disparity, Afro-Americans have long been vulnerable to physical violence in the racially-charged America. The historical novel A Mercy (2008) by noted Afro-American writer and Nobel laureate Toni Morrison (1931-2019) revolves around the historical milieu and events of 17th century America. In the early phase of colonialism in America, Afro-Americans were victims of various types of human bondage, from chattel slavery to indentured servitude. The present paper aims to depict, from the point of view of Black Feminism, how the female slaves in this novel are exploited—sexually, economically, and politically. It also tries to focus on how they try to warn the younger slaves about slavery by sharing their personal trauma. Motherhood is widely believed to be an essential issue of feminism. This paper attempts to show the psychology of ‘mothering’ in a world circumscribed by racial oppression, and the strategies a black slave-mother adopts for her survival and also to safeguard her children. It investigates why Florens, the protagonist of the novel, ultimately feels the urge to document her excruciating life-story by etching on the wooden walls in one of her master’s rooms. (Keywords: racism; chattel; indentured; trauma; Black Feminism; mothering)