Multiple transitions in the works of Susan Caperna Lloyd

Abstract

This article aims to analyse Susan Caperna Lloyd's literary output, emphasizing the writer's multiple transitions. No Pictures in My Grave, her 1992 travel memoir, followed by The Crucifixion of Lucy Reyes (2017) and Dance It Up (2023) – both currently in manuscript form – will serve as the primary objects of investigation. As will be shown, the exploration of her cultural roots as an American of Italian origin is just the starting point for a more complex quest, which leads her to uncover powerful feminine icons and ancestral mothers, who provide her with alternative models of femininity. In her latest work, Caperna Lloyd also delves deeper into the intricate transition between life and death, discovering that these states are not mutually exclusive but rather complementary.