Introduction: Of pink (and red) paint, Black lives (that matter), and intersectionality in Italy

This volume originated in the seminar “Intersectional Italy” that we organized for the annual conference of the American Comparative Literature Association in 2020, aiming to promote a conversation on an important issue that is still undertheorized in the Italian cultural context. The brilliant response we received from seminar participants and the lively discussion that developed during the three days of the conference prompted us to coordinate the publication of our reflections. This Special Issue includes eight articles by conference participants and two interviews with writers and intellectuals Djarah Kan and Leaticia Ouedraogo, who discuss intersectionality, Blackness, white privilege, and other related topics. The challenge we presented to contributors was to apply an intersectional methodology to analyse the specificity of the Italian cultural context and to utilize this approach for the cultural analysis (in a broad sense) of different kinds of texts and representations (Camilotti and Crivelli 2017; Romeo 2021).