{"id":391,"date":"2019-12-23T07:06:01","date_gmt":"2019-12-23T07:06:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/italian-woolf\/?p=391"},"modified":"2019-12-23T07:07:29","modified_gmt":"2019-12-23T07:07:29","slug":"the-importance-of-being-fiction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/italian-woolf\/the-importance-of-being-fiction\/","title":{"rendered":"The importance of being fiction"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cIf you can read yourself as fiction as well as a fact, you will be freer. If you are a story, you can change that story, especially how it ends.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I read this sentence in Jeanette Winterson\u2019s <i>Love<\/i>, and it made me think of my own story, which has now become my life, my fact.<\/p>\n<p>When you apply for a grant, you read yourself as fiction. Yes, there are facts of course, and you cannot make everything up, but part of the grant writing is fiction, it\u2019s a story of who you could be, what you could do, who and what you might become thanks to that grant. While I was writing my application for the Marie Curie Individual fellowship I tried to put in it, on the one side, all those things that I knew the EU commission treausured \u2013 gender issues, communication to the general public, field work with students \u2013 but in the meantime I was writing the story of what I would have liked to do and to be. I had to read, and write, myself as fiction in order to image what I would have been able to achieve should I have become that version of myself.<br \/>\n<span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.08px\">When I read my application one last time before pressing submit, it scared me: should I have won, would I have been able to do all those things? Did that woman really exist?<br \/>\n<\/span>It didn\u2019t, of course. Not yet. But it does now.<br \/>\nIn writing a story of myself I changed my story, I created a fiction of myself which transformed me into that version of me. This is how important it is to try and write projects, to dare and think big. It allows ourself to put no limits to what we can become.<br \/>\nAs my (amazing) colleague Sarah Bigi used to tell me: \u201cwhen you\u2019re tired or disappointed or frustrated don\u2019t waste time complaining. Sit down and write a project.\u201d To which I add: dare to read yourself as fiction, and change your story for the better.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-394\" src=\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/italian-woolf\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/143\/Unorganized\/2D356A76-9D13-44A2-9650-FA70E33525A8-scaled.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/italian-woolf\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/143\/Unorganized\/2D356A76-9D13-44A2-9650-FA70E33525A8-scaled.jpeg 2560w, https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/italian-woolf\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/143\/Unorganized\/2D356A76-9D13-44A2-9650-FA70E33525A8-300x300.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/italian-woolf\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/143\/Unorganized\/2D356A76-9D13-44A2-9650-FA70E33525A8-1024x1024.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/italian-woolf\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/143\/Unorganized\/2D356A76-9D13-44A2-9650-FA70E33525A8-150x150.jpeg 150w, https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/italian-woolf\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/143\/Unorganized\/2D356A76-9D13-44A2-9650-FA70E33525A8-768x768.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/italian-woolf\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/143\/Unorganized\/2D356A76-9D13-44A2-9650-FA70E33525A8-1536x1536.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/italian-woolf\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/143\/Unorganized\/2D356A76-9D13-44A2-9650-FA70E33525A8-2048x2048.jpeg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>\u201cSe potete considerarvi come una narrazione oltre che come un fatto, sarete pi\u00f9 liberi. Se siete una storia, potete cambiarla, soprattutto il finale.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ho letto questa frase nel libro <em>Love<\/em> di Jeanette Winterson e mi ha fatta pensare alla mia storia, che ora \u00e8 diventata la mia vita, il mio dato di fatto.<br \/>\nQuando scrivi un progetto per un bando pensi a te stessa come un romanzo. S\u00ec certo, ci sono i fatti, e non puoi inventarti tutto, ma parte della scrittura del progetto \u00e8 una finzione, \u00e8 la storia di chi potresti essere, di quello che potresti fare, di ci\u00f2 che potresti diventare grazie a quei fondi. Mentre scrivevo il mio progetto per la Marie Curie cercavo di inserire, da un lato, tutte quelle cose che sapevo essere importanti per la Commissione dell\u2019Unione Europea \u2013 le questioni di genere, la comunicazione col pubblico, il lavoro sul campo con gli studenti \u2013 ma al contempo stavo scrivendo la storia di quel che avrei voluto fare e diventare. Ho dovuto considerarmi, e scrivere di me, come fossi un romanzo per riuscire a immaginare cosa sarei stata in grado di fare se mi fossi potuta trasformare in quella versione di me stessa.<br \/>\nQuando lessi la proposta un\u2019ultima volta prima di inviarla mi spavent\u00f2: se avessi vinto, sarei stata in grado di fare tutte quelle cose? Quella donna di cui avevo scritto esisteva davvero?<br \/>\nNo, ovviamente. Non ancora. Ma esiste ora.<br \/>\nScrivendo una storia di me stessa ho cambiato la mia storia, ho creato una narrazione di me stessa che mi ha trasformata in quella versione di me. Ecco quanto \u00e8 importante scrivere un progetto, osare, pensare in grande. Ci permette di non porre limiti a quello che possiamo diventare.<br \/>\nCome diceva sempre la mia (fantastica) collega Sarah Bigi: \u201cquando sei stanca o delusa o frustrata, non perdere tempo a lamentarti. Siediti e scrivi un progetto.\u201d A cui aggiungo: osate pensare a voi stessi come a un romanzo, e cambiate in meglio la vostra storia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cIf you can read yourself as fiction as well as a fact, you will be freer. If you are a story, you can change that story, especially how it ends.\u201d&#8230;<a class=\"read-more\" href=\"&#104;&#116;&#116;&#112;&#115;&#58;&#47;&#47;&#114;&#101;&#115;&#101;&#97;&#114;&#99;&#104;&#46;&#114;&#101;&#97;&#100;&#105;&#110;&#103;&#46;&#97;&#99;&#46;&#117;&#107;&#47;&#105;&#116;&#97;&#108;&#105;&#97;&#110;&#45;&#119;&#111;&#111;&#108;&#102;&#47;&#116;&#104;&#101;&#45;&#105;&#109;&#112;&#111;&#114;&#116;&#97;&#110;&#99;&#101;&#45;&#111;&#102;&#45;&#98;&#101;&#105;&#110;&#103;&#45;&#102;&#105;&#99;&#116;&#105;&#111;&#110;&#47;\">Read More ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":270,"featured_media":394,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"__cvm_playback_settings":[],"__cvm_video_id":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[47,45,46],"coauthors":[7],"class_list":["post-391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorised","tag-imagination","tag-projects","tag-writing"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The importance of being fiction - Virginia Woolf and Italian Readers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When you apply for a grant, you read yourself as fiction. 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Part of the grant writing is fiction, it\u2019s a story of who you could be, what you could do, who and what you might become thanks to that grant.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/italian-woolf\/the-importance-of-being-fiction\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Virginia Woolf and Italian Readers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-12-23T07:06:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-12-23T07:07:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/italian-woolf\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/143\/Unorganized\/2D356A76-9D13-44A2-9650-FA70E33525A8-scaled.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Elisa Bolchi\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Elisa Bolchi\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/italian-woolf\/the-importance-of-being-fiction\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/italian-woolf\/the-importance-of-being-fiction\/\",\"name\":\"The importance of being fiction - Virginia Woolf and Italian Readers\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/italian-woolf\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2019-12-23T07:06:01+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-12-23T07:07:29+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/italian-woolf\/#\/schema\/person\/fbedd045dd65303922e8b921cea46f23\"},\"description\":\"When you apply for a grant, you read yourself as fiction. 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