The language and literature specialist has earned a $329,246 Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award to uncover the forgotten works of some of France's provincial poets, swept aside in the wake of the French Revolution. She believes they have much to teach us today about the importance of regional identity to multiculturalism and diversity.
"The idea of a nation state strengthened in France after the Revolution, and was firmly centred on Paris," Valentina says. "Regional languages were thought to threaten national unity, so they were mocked or suppressed. But by looking through the eyes of these marginalised poets we can see how silencing their voices threatened multiculturalism."
Social inclusion, today or in the past, involves recognising the wealth of cultural, social and political influences in regional centres as well as major cities, in Valentina's view. And this is what makes her research relevant to contemporary Australian debates about the widening urban-rural divide.
"True national identity is a mosaic of different cultures and minority languages, all as important as one another," Valentina says. "By considering the important role of the French poets in shaping an inclusive society, I would like to encourage Australians to revalue their own regional and rural cultural heritage, to ultimately bridge that divide."
In unearthing unpublished poetry from the archives, Valentina is seeking to answer questions of not just French, but Australian and global significance. "What did these poets have to say in their own language? How did their different voices contribute to a multicultural and multilingual view of national identity? How did this position them in terms of world culture?"
Valentina has already identified several Australian parallels, including the way that colonial Australians suppressed Aboriginal languages and cultures, and believes her research may cast a spotlight on other aspects of modern life. "Rural and regional areas are not the backwaters that some people think; our Australian provinces are rich and diverse webs of cultural exchange, containing lots of different voices and perspectives," Valentina says."We really should reclaim and champion them. Because no matter how cosmopolitan, our histories are always rooted in the local."
