DescriptionMy dissertation “Sensuous Wanderings: Urban Spaces in the Literary Imagination of Italian Writers in Alexandria, Egypt” explores the literary invention of Alexandria cityscape from the early 1900’s and the 1940’s in Filippo Tommaso Marinetti and Giuseppe Ungaretti’s travelogues (Il fascino dell’Egitto and Quaderno egiziano) and Enrico Pea and Fausta Cialente’s narratives (Vita in Egitto, Ballata levantina, respectively). Inspired by Bertrand Westphal’s notion of geocriticism and adopting a sensory-centered approach, my research demonstrates that their representations of the city rather than debunking the imperialistic perspectives at the core of the Western literary invention of Alexandria, they contribute to it. Relying on the writers’ sensuous perceptions of the city space I demonstrate that despite their privileged position as inside and/or outside members of the international community, and despite their political activism and anti-colonial intents, their narratives reenact and reify dynamics of urban separation, cultural hierarchy, and political dominance.