Contemporary Italian Diversity in Critical and Fictional Narratives is about identity-individual and national-and belonging. It is also an affirmation of diversity. The editors of this volume have brought together articles that analyze the literature of migration as well as creative pieces by recognized authors who have a lived experience of migration. English speakers will find their own societal struggles with diversity mirrored in Italy's colonial inheritance and its renewed nationalism, populism, xenophobia, and shifting national identity.The artists and scholars who have contributed to this book challenge national discourses, dehumanizations, and issues of race and gender. But many also seek to move beyond the negative and critical to claim belonging-especially national belonging-in the name of diversity as part of human experience. The chapters emphasize how individuals both reflect and enact societal change, and they foreground the inescapable fact that human differences and migration drive and shape societal identity in our world.
Marie Orton is professor of Italian at Brigham Young University. Graziella Parati is the Paul D. Paganucci Professor of Italian Literature and Language at Dartmouth College. Ron Kubati, PhD., is an independent scholar and author.
Section I: Diversity in Italy Poetry Vera Lucia de Oliveira "I was among warm folk in a warm country" (Ero fra calda gente in un caldo paese) Translated by Ashna Ali Essay Clarissa Clo and Enrico Zammarchi "Stran(i)ero nella mia nazione": Hip-Hop from Southern Alie-Nation to Afro-Italian Nation-Hood Essay Daniele Comberiati Reading "Albania" in Italy: Reception of Elvira Dones's Piccola guerra perfetta and Ron Kubati's La via dell'eroe Essay Lucia Re Migration, the Novel and the Power of Fear: A Dialogical Perspective from Baktin to Lakhous Fiction Amara Lakhous "Ninth Wail" and "The Truth of Abdallah Ben Kadour," from Clash of Civilizations over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio Essay Ryan Calabretta-Sajer Gendering the "Giallo": Gender Roles in the Opus of Amara Lakhous Fiction Ubax Cristina Ali Farah "The Phoenix" (La Fenice) Translated by Silvia Guslandi Essay Wendy Pojmann Creativity as Feminist Practice: Intercultural Women's Associations in Italy Essay Fulvio Pezzarossa "Arriving Too Soon is a Mistake" Amnesia in the Postcolonial Archive: The Antonaros Case Fiction Adrian Bravi "When Jacopo da Fiori Watched the Monkeys in the Treetops" (Quando Jacopo da Fiori guardava la chioma degli alberi) Translated by Kevin Regan-Maglione Section II: Diversity of Diversity Poetry Basir Ahang "Identity" (Identita) Translated by Ashna Ali Essay Caterina Romeo Defying the Chromatic Norm: Strategies of Invisibility and Italian Transdiasporic Blackness Essay Marta Cariello Reconfiguring "la donna del Sud": Trans-Mediterranean Narratives Fiction Shirin Ramzanali Fazel "The Guest" Essay Simone Brioni Questions of Authority and Literary Meticciato in Scrivere di Islam: Raccontare la diaspora Essay Lidia Radi Albania Mon Amour: Tales of Female Love and Duty in the Italian Writings of Vorpsi, Dones, and Ibrahimi Poetry Gezim Hajdari "The Nails of Exile" (I chiodi dell'esilio) Translated by James Walker Essay Lidia Curti Beyond the Canon: Women's Italian Writings of Migration Essay Jennifer Burns Kinships: Relations of Care and Experiences of Locality in Transnational Italian Narrative Fiction Gabriella Kuruvilla "The Two of Me" (Io siamo in due) Translated by Eleanor Paynter Essay Ron Kubati Translingual Literature and Multi-belonging
