Italy

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the development of the Italian novel identified with the Arab Diaspora. Literature in Italian by Arab writers is associated with the large-scale immigration from outside the European Union that the country began to experience in the late 1970s. As distinct from the traditions of Anglophone and Francophone literature, the notion of Italophone literature has acquired little currency, despite the focus of the definition of “migration literature in Italian” on the common language of writing. This chapter explores the reasons for this, and looks at the works of some Maghrebi and Middle Eastern male writers who have successfully explored the novel as a form in recent Italian literature. It also considers the role of language as a point of entry of Arabic culture into the Italian novel, along with the distinctive contribution of novels by Arab women writers.