Das ›bel paese‹ heute: zwischen Auswanderung und Einwanderung

Abstract

In 1952, in his famous essay »Philologie der Weltliteratur«, the German Jewish scholar of literature Erich Auerbach commented on the general homogenizing processes that he considered an unfortunate consequence of the general speed of communication flow and exchange of information, which is called ›globalization‹ today. Unlike Erich Auerbach, Dante Alighieri considered homogeneity — at least in the Italy of his time — to be a worthy goal. Dante envisioned an Italian vernacular as a unifying element in a situation of extreme political, cultural and linguistic heterogeneity. In retrospect, language has never really been a constituent of a homogenous identity for the whole population in Italy. Dialects, minority languages, a multitude of regional cultures and regionally-orientated literatures repeatedly prevailed. Moreover, new, essentially polyphonic literary voices are now being heard from authors who have immigrated to Italy, to the country where emigration is (still) the norm. This essay tries to evaluate the dimensions of these immigrated ›foreign‹ voices in Italy, in the context of Italy’s cultural and literary history. The emergence of an immigrant literature in Italy is used as a case study to point out some general theoretical aspects regarding an Italian identity that is — and has always been — in transformation. From this perspective, the term »Italian literature« designates a variety of literatures both inside and outside Italy. Italian literature not only does not exist without its others, it is actually constituted by its others.