Il pretesto della legge in una letteratura in lingua diversa: leggi e scritture dell’emigrazione italiana in Germania

Abstract

The proposal of this article is to compare and analyze by means of a genealogical approach a series of laws, common representations and literary writings of the Italian migration in Germany (1955-2012) showing their particular way of strengthening or contradicting each other. Franco Biondi and Gino Chiellino, two Italian authors who chose to write in German, refer to the text of the law as a term to compare or confront with by constructing a literature written in a “different language”. They reflect particularly upon the polarization of the migration space and the ideological construction of the Other as a result of a complex relationship between law and collective imaginary. This case study exemplifies how literature can sometimes confute the law by displaying a critique towards some power constellations but also how it can conceive itself as a field where it is possible to introduce a discourse on the rights. In doing so it makes emerge cultural border spaces as well as broader and more inclusive communities or cross-cultural identities.