Description
Book SynopsisThe history of Italians and of modern Italian culture stems from multiple experiences of mobility and migration: between the late 19th century and the early 20th century, 27 million Italians migrated and 60 to 80 million people worldwide see their identity as connected with the Italian diaspora. Since the time of Italian unification, a series of narratives about mobility have been produced both inside and outside the boundaries of Italy, by agents such as the Italian state, international organizations or migrant communities themselves.
The essays in Transcultural Italies follow the multiple trajectories of this complex history and of its representations. They do so by focusing on the key concepts and practices of mobility, memory and translation. Taken together, they represent a contrapuntal series of case studies that offers a fresh perspective on the study of modern and contemporary Italy. The essays in the volume explore the meanings that ‘transnational’ and ‘transcultural’ assume when applied to the notion of Italian culture.
Contributors: Charles Burdett, Jennifer Burns, Derek Duncan, Chiara Giuliani, Viviana Gravano, Giulia Grechi, Margaret Hills de Zárate, Eliana Maestri, Valerie McGuire, Loredana Polezzi, Barbara Spadaro, Ilaria Vanni, Naomi Wells, Rita WilsonTrade Review“
Transcultural Italies brings together a series of essays that interrogate the inherently dynamic nature of Italian identity and culture to advance the transnational turn that is presently reshaping the field of Italian Studies."
Stephanie Malia Hom, University of California, Santa Barbara
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Transcultural Italies adds new dimensions to the study of human mobilities and suggests a path-breaking approach to the cultural study of Italian migrations, from the movement of people and objects through space and memory to Italian influences on global culture.”
Maddalena Tirabassi, Centro Altreitalie sulle Migrazioni Italiane, Turin
Table of ContentsIntroduction: Transcultural Italies
Charles Burdett, Loredana Polezzi and Barbara Spadaro
Section 1: TracesThe Transnational Biography of ‘British’ Place: Local and Global Stories in the Built Environment
Jennifer Burns
Porteña Identity and Italianità: Language, Materiality and Transcultural Memory in Valparaíso’s Italian Community
Naomi Wells
Italian Identity, Global Mediterranean: Tourism and Cultural Heritage in Post-Colonial Rhodes
Valerie McGuire
Italy and Africa: Post-War Memories of Life in Eritrea and Ethiopia
Charles Burdett
Section 2: Art, Objects and Artefacts‘The Path that Leads Me Home’: Eduardo Paolozzi and the Arts of Transnationalizing
Derek Duncan
Moving Objects: Memory and Material Culture
Margaret Hills de Zárate
Visualizing Spatialization at a Crossroads between Translation and Mobility: Italian Australian Artist Jon Cattapan’s Cityscapes
Eliana Maestri
An Exhibition about Italian Identities
Beyond BordersViviana Gravano and Giulia Grechi
Section 3: Mobilities of MemoryPitigliano, Maryland? Travelling Memories and Moments of Truth
Barbara Spadaro
Misplaced Plants: Migrant Gardens and Transculturation
Ilaria Vanni
The Chinese Community in Italy, the Italian Community in China: Economic Exchanges and Cultural Difference
Chiara Giuliani
Writing the Neighbourhood: Literary Representations of Language, Space and Mobility
Rita Wilson
From Substitution to Co-presence: Translation, Memory, Trace and the Visual Practices of Diasporic Italian Artists
Loredana Polezzi
