Abstract, name, affiliation and paper title acis conference 4-6 December 2013 Karen Agutter University of Adelaide Italian Migrant Hostel Experiences

The conference themes are re-imagining Italian Studies in the 21^st century and conceptualising our researches into Italian culture in the context of globalisation. Bearing in mind that the three other Keynote speakers will deal with contemporary topics, I have chosen to concentrate on the pre-modern period in this two-part lecture. In the first part, I will consider some of the ways in which UK research into medieval and early modern Italian culture has diversified in recent years (the imposition of scientific models of research, the concern with the public impact of academic enquiry, the role of knowledge exchange). In the second half, I will consider one contemporary example of Australian engagement with early Italian culture: Clive James’ recently acclaimed translation of Dante’s Comedy (2013). It is almost exactly 200 years since the first complete translation into English of Dante’s masterpiece, by Henry Cary (1814), so James has many illustrious predecessors. However, there are many innovations in Clive James’ version that make it stand out as being fit for purpose in our century: he is the first to incorporate information normally found in footnotes into the text itself; he is the first to use a flexible quatrain rather than blank verse or terza rima as his metre; and he is the first to pay explicit attention to poetic tempo and texture. In his introduction James quotes T. S. Eliot’s view that the final canti of the Paradiso are as great as poetry can get, then adds: ‘The translator’s task is to suggest that such a judgment might be right.’ The second part of this lecture analyses James’ version to see if it reaches the bar that he has set so high.

Recent work on Translation Studies have shed light on the crucial role played by translation in the reception of texts outside their country of production. The translation industry has ensured that most of Calvino's works have now been translated into English. However, there are some interesting gaps which are worth exploring, and there are also a number of translations still in print that provide a misleading picture of any 'message' in Calvino's works. There were a number of flaws in the very first English versions (Il sentiero dei nidi di ragno, and some early short stories), as might have been expected, but even his best selling fictional work, Le citta' invisibili, translated by an expert such as William Weaver in 1974, has some crucial mis-translations, and the same is true of some of his non-fiction, including a 1980s translation of Perche' leggere i classici.

La presente ricerca esamina un aspetto della relazione tra minoranze etniche e capitale sociale. Nel caso specifico, saranno analizzate le relazioni sociali ed economiche che si svolgono all’interno del sistema della parentela spirituale, quello del comparatico di battesimo, in un gruppo di famiglie originarie da una circoscritta area rurale calabrese. La parentela spirituale, oltre a svolgere una funzione identitaria, è uno tra gli strumenti più efficaci per la produzione di capitale sociale nella comunità calabrese di Adelaide. Lo studio esamina come le famiglie vincolate tra loro dal San Giovanni (il comparatico di battesimo), operino all’interno di un network di famiglie alleate, i compari, vincolate tra loro da un sistema prescrittivo di ‘amichevolezza’ (amity) imposto culturalmente che proscrive ogni forma di attrito, imponendo un rispetto reciproco ‘congelato nel tempo’, di generazione in generazione. Sarà osservato il dispiegamento di questa rete di relazioni familiari nell’ambiente lavorativo delle famiglie dei partecipanti, confermando il ruolo svolto dal comparatico nella produzione di capitale sociale.

Keywords: Comparatico, capitale sociale, Italo-Australiani, alleanze familiari, trasmissione culturale
Cristina Mauceri

University of Sydney

Ruh Romagna + Africa=, the dawn of a new African Italian theatre

It is well known that in the last decades of the twentieth century, Italy became a destination country for migration from different continents, and this is now reflected in literature. However, it is not well known that in the last century the first literary collaboration between African migrants and Italians took place on the stage, before the publication of the first works by migrant writers at the beginning of the 1990s, written with the help of Italian authors. In 1988, the Ravenna based company, Teatro delle Albe, staged  Ruh Romagna + Africa =, the first performance by both African and Italian actors. In the first part of my presentation, I will illustrate the poetics of the Albe, characterised by what Martinelli, the director of the company, defined a ‘meticciato artistico’. In the second part, I will analyse some aspects of this intercultural play and show how the Albe adopted a postcolonial perspective to deconstruct and mock the Italian stereotypical perception of black people and denounce a colonialist attitude towards them, using devices such as irony and parody.

After having long been neglected in official accounts, Sicilian-born Giorgio Mangiamele has in more recent years come to be rightfully acknowledged as one of the pioneers of the revival of the Australian film industry in the postwar period. However, a closer investigation of the historical record reveals an involvement of Italians in Australian film culture from its earliest days. A notable case is that of the Pugliese family. A native of Viggiano in Southern Italy, Antonio Pugliese migrated to Australia as a labourer in 1881 but by 1910 he, and the large family he had fathered with his Australian-born wife, Caroline, owned and operated three cinemas in the Sydney area. As a tightly-knit family concern, ‘Pugliese Enterprises’ managed to continue operating successfully as an independent exhibitor even after the formation of the combine in 1913, indeed directly challenging the power of the combine by releasing films such as Raymond Longford’s A Maori Maid’s Love (1916) at its Alhambra cinema in Haymarket. Following Antonio’s death in 1916, Caroline and eldest son, Humbert, further expanded the company’s activities into film production and financed at least three films, including the early Raymond Longford/Lottie Lyell vehicle, The Church and the Woman (1917). Critically acclaimed and remarkably successful at the box-office when it was first released, the film nevertheless came to involve the family in a series of expensive litigations over copyright, all of which may have contributed to the demise of the company in the early 1920s.

In this paper I attempt to trace the involvement of the Pugliese family in early Australian film culture and its significant contribution to the first flowerings of the Australian film industry.

Keywords: Australian film industry, Italian migration

I introduce the phenomenon of Terra matta, indicating its exceptional interest, placing it in its cultural and historical context and tracking the transformations of the work as it moves through its different textual embodiments, adding aesthetic, social and economic value at each point.

In 1953 Luchino Visconti wrote to American actor, Farley Granger, to lure him to Italy to make Senso (1954). In obvious attempt to induce the Hollywood star to add something of his glamour to the film, Visconti’s letter takes great care to describe the conditions under which the film will be made. In doing so, however, Visconti does much more than merely talking-up the job in a way that will appeal to Granger’s own celebrated box office status. What the letter does, in effect, is to announce the end of neo realist filmmaking in Italy.

Based on detailed analysis of archival material from the Fondo Luchino Visconti at the Istituto Gramsci, Roma, this paper contextualises Senso, an already controversial production, as a film confirming movements that saw Italian filmmakers of the 1950s embark upon creative agendas taking their work beyond the party line of neo-realism. One particular approach many directors took was to re-engage with the theatricality, the backstage life and the values of performance that had been central to their creative development before the war. Films preceding Senso, such as Luci del varieta (Fellini, 1950), Belissima (Visconti, 1951), La signora senza camelie (Antonioni, 1953), show this early fifties group as not simply house directors for neo-realist critical pleasures, but as ‘showfolk’ and artists in themselves, yearning for new and personal forms of creative expression. Through the example of Senso, this paper shows Visconti asserting, not only a political reappraisal of the history of the Risorgimento, but a reassertion of a politics of the forms and creative agendas that originate deep in his theatrical roots. Reading this production, we learn a great deal about the way creative collaboration with foreign artists took place in Italy in the 1950s and 1960s. We also learn a great deal about the work of film theorists and how that work relates to creative practice.

Keywords: Cinema, Luchino Visconti, Senso, Neo Realism, Criticism, Filmmaking

Nel mio intervento do conto delle motivazioni, anche personali, che mi hanno fatto intraprendere la produzione del film e traccio la storia dalla prima idea del 2007 fino alla sua realizzazione/presentazione a Venezia nel 2012. Metto a fuoco le scelte principali da affrontare durante tutto il percorso, le decisioni prese singolarmente o collettivamente e i motivi che hanno ispirato quelle decisioni. Infine accenno alla nuova sfida, l’Archivio degli Iblei, la cui realizzazione è parte del Progetto terramatta.

Quando si pensa a una lingua, a come si impara e si insegna, si tende subito a pensare a lessico e grammatica. Benché l'esistenza di una dimensione pragmatica sia nota da tempo, prima in campo teorico, poi nella dimensione applicativa, le riflessioni in merito per quanto riguarda la didattica dell'italiano sono ancora piuttosto sporadiche.

This paper presents some findings from a study that examines the motivations of adult Australians of non-Italian origin to learn Italian. As well as being one of the most taught languages in the Australian school and university systems, Italian is also one of the most chosen language subjects for adults in vocational courses. Nonetheless, very little research has been conducted in this latter area, in spite of the very high numbers of students who enrol in these Italian courses every year. Therefore my research aims to investigate the motivations leading adult Australians to learn a ‘non global’ (Dörnyei, 2009) second language such as Italian.

The main hypothesis of my study is that in the Australian multicultural context, the motivation to learn Italian is influenced by a process of negotiation of identity, triggered by both the presence of a well established Italian migrant community and the exposure to Italian cultural elements. Thus the ‘investment’ (Norton Pierce, 1995) of students in learning Italian may be generated by the desire to acquire some forms of symbolic capital rather than material resources, as in the case of other more ‘global’ languages (e.g. English).

My study embraces a view of motivation as a multifaceted phenomenon that is produced in a social environment through the interaction between the second language learners and the context in which they operate (Gardner, 1985, 2010; Dörnyei, 2005; Norton, 2000; Pavlenko, 2002).

In this paper I will present results of a questionnaire distributed electronically to students, and of interviews with students of Italian at different language levels enrolled in two institutions for adult education in Sydney.

Keywords: Adult language learning motivation, identity, Italian learnt in Australia, symbolic capital.

A summer's day on the foreshore at Lipari. The young Sicilian serving us lunch has nearly completed her university degree, majoring in environmental science and economic development. ‘Neither of these exist in Italy!’, she says with a laugh. Already two of her friends have moved to Melbourne. They are part of the fourth movement of emigrati to Australia, and we suggest the term ‘globalisti’ to sum up their experience. There were three former waves (Pascoe 1987): ‘esploratori’, the scouts of the nineteenth century, ‘pescatori’, the fisherfolk and farmers who came in large numbers from the 1920s, and ‘costruttori’, the urban builders from the 1950s. The ‘builders’ established the Little Italies up and down Australia. Among their achievements is ‘Il Globo’, the most successful Italian newspaper outside Italy (Cafarella & Pascoe 2010). The globalisti are leaving Italy for much the same economic reasons as their grandparents, but they are arriving with tertiary qualifications, a more sophisticated understanding of politics, and the new technologies of social media. In this paper we use interviews with globalisti to speculate on the causes and consequences of this interesting phenomenon. Just as the Eolian Islands supplied so many talented and resourceful immigrants on the distant past, so too our lunchtime hostess and her generation might well have a significant effect on contemporary Australia.

Keywords: i globalisti; fourth wave
Ellen Patat

Bahçeşehir University

Io e Te di Niccolò Ammaniti per l’apprendimento della lingua straniera. L’Italiano espatriante d’oggi

Tra le ultime esperienze letterarie italiane divulgate a livello internazionale, in linea con le evidenti tendenze per una lettura veloce e generalmente fruibile da un’ampia fascia di lettori, si ritrova il romanzo intimistico, Io e Te, dell’ex-cavaliere splatter, Niccolò Ammaniti. L’arte del saper scrivere immediato, la creatività e la semplicità dello stile dei suoi racconti, rendono questo breve romanzo un potenziale strumento per l’apprendimento della lingua italiana. E’, tuttavia, inevitabile dover riconsiderare il ‘problema della lingua’. L’interrogativo che questo saggio vuole affrontare riguarda proprio l’italiano e l’italianità che emergono da questa lettura. Analizzando le particolarità linguistiche del testo si cercherà di delineare quale sia la varietà linguistica che lo caratterizza e che lo trasforma in un’originale fonte di arricchimento e di riflessione per l’insegnamento dell’italiano come lingua straniera. La lingua comune assurge al rango di lingua d’arte a cui ricorrono sempre più scrittori delle nuove generazioni per esprimere la propria identità. L’italiano espatriante d’oggi è una varietà neo-standard, a volte sub-standard, che, convogliando l’odierna italianità, si rivolge a un pubblico eterogeneo. Emergono la componente gergale colloquiale tradizionale e innovativa specchio di una lingua in continuo cambiamento. Sembra, inoltre, che l’italiano mediatico e i suoi ritmi filtrino nella letteratura e diventino il cardine di un nuovo modo di esprimersi. La sintassi semplice, lo stile stringato e la lingua viva contribuiscono al successo della narrazione seppur eliminando la più classica raffinatezza retorica tipica di molti capolavori della letteratura italiana. A livello lessicale, il richiamo al mondo animale, in particolare alla sfera entomologica, offre spunti per metafore e similitudini. Queste caratteristiche, la chiarezza e la semplicità sintattica del testo lo rendono un possibile strumento nell’insegnamento delle quattro ‘macro-skills’. Il testo rappresenta un valore aggiunto in un contesto in cui il discente, motivato e stimolato a sviluppare un’autonomia cognitiva e critica, assume un ruolo attivo nella costruzione del sapere.

Keywords:Ammaniti, italiano neo-standard, apprendimento lingua seconda.
Michele Pedrolo

La Trobe University

Percezione dell’illegalità e sindrome da impunità nell’Italia dell’ultimo trentennio

L’ultimo trentennio della storia d’Italia si connota, tra le altre cose, per un generale abbassamento della soglia di attenzione sull’illegalità. Il malaffare è percepito come diffuso e genera da un lato sfiducia e discredito, ma d’altra parte si sostanzia anche in una domanda generalizzata di illecito, la quale è alimentata da una percezione largamente condivisa della possibilità di farla franca. Il pagamento di una congrua tangente per una vasta gamma di attività pubbliche (appalti, licenze, concessioni, accelerazioni di passaggi procedurali, informazioni riservate, controlli addomesticati, mancanza di contestazioni di illeciti ecc.) è ormai percepito come prassi normale. Al tempo stesso il disprezzo che la pratica della corruzione genera verso l’apparato amministrativo induce il cittadino a non sentirsi vincolato al rispetto di leggi, regolamenti e procedure. Non induce cioè a chiedere il ripristino della legalità ma, casomai, incita ad approfittare di un clima generalizzato di impunità. Come interpretare questo degrado, la ricerca di piccoli vantaggi, di indebite prebende, presupposti di una cultura che percepisce l’inganno e la frode come innocenti, innocui, non sanzionabili? Ne è in parte responsabile il nuovo ordine mediatico, che nell’ultimo ventennio ha progressivamente messo la sordina a notizie su casi di corruzione, a partire dalla ormai quindicinale campagna assolutoria di Silvio Berlusconi nei processi in cui è stato e continua ad essere coinvolto come imputato, con la conseguente demonizzazione della magistratura, dipinta come politicamente faziosa e irresponsabile. Ma occorre anche prestare attenzione all’enfasi posta su un individualismo sfrenato, su una pulsione desiderante illimitata, che ha interpretato il concetto di libertà nella sua accezione negativa, come libertà da qualsiasi vincolo, secondo una declinazione tutta edonistica della privacy. Il contenuto della mia comunicazione verterà in particolare su quest’ultimo aspetto, sull ‘evaporazione della figura paterna’ nella società contemporanea, con particolare riferimento all’anomalia italiana di inizio millennio.

Keywords: Berlusconismo, consumismo, corruzione, culto narcisistico dell’io, evaporazione della figura simbolica del padre, individualismo, mass media
Barbara Pezzotti

ACIS

Giorgio Scerbanenco’s Investigations into Political Trasformismo and Otherness: A Case of Postmodern Impegno

With his series featuring Duca Lamberti, Giorgio Scerbanenco (1911-1969) tackled some sensitive issues of Italian society of the 1960s. However, Italian intellectuals of his times have denied Scerbanenco his role of a politically committed author. Using the concept of ‘postmodern impegno’ (Antonello & Mussgnug 2009, 11) – as opposed to the traditional notion of Gramscian impegno – in my paper I show that Scerbanenco has exploited the conventions of the American hard-boiled novel in order to carry on a severe critique of the Italian society and politics of his times. Indeed, apart from tackling urbanisation and pollution, consumerism, and the rise of brutal organised crime in Milan and Europe, this writer has also performed a critique of political opportunism and historical amnesia following World War II. Ultimately, Scerbanenco’s original style and his sustained engagement with many important problems of Italian society of the 1960s make him an exponent of a generation of writers, which includes Luciano Bianciardi (1922-1971) and Giovanni Testori (1923-1993), deeply involved in Italy’s social transformations, and stylistically a precursor of the ‘Giovani cannibali’ literary trend of the 1980s and 1990s.

Keywords: crime fiction, impegno, scerbanenco
Mariastella Pulvirenti

Flinders University

Casa Mia: Home ownership and identity for post-war Italian Australian migrants

This paper shows the link between immigration, identity and home ownership for first and second generation Italian Australian migrants. It is based on stories recounted almost 20 years ago, stories now being brought to life for a new publication due to be released in 2014. It reveals the distinctiveness of the meanings of home ownership for the post-war migrant generation, due to a strong desire and drive to achieve ‘sistemazione’. Borrowing from Judith Butler’s concept of the heterosexual matrix, this link is represented as a heterosexual home-ownership matrix wherein the desire for home ownership is naturalised by connecting it to a specific set of heterosexual household relations. The paper also reveals how the matrix is a site around which second generation Italian Australians negotiate their gender, class, sexual and ethnic identities. The revelations are presented through the stories of individual women and men within the context of their housing histories.

Keywords: Italian-Australian, home-ownership, identity, sistemazione
Giovanni Rabito