Reading Italian texts produced by foreign migrant writers

Abstract

The author describes some of the steps in the fifteen-year-old writing experience of immigrants in Italian, considering the difficulty of the national culture to accept the complex and ‘dissonant’ contribution of voices from other cultures, able to undermine simplistic and patronizing viewpoints on Italian racism and colonialism. By way of a quick outline, some of the most interesting literary themes are quoted, from the famous 1990 texts by Salah Methnani and Pap Khouma, and some of the most interesting voices are highlighted, such as the poet Gezim Hajdari, the novelists Vesna Stanic and Jadeline Gangbo, up to the surprising pages of the Italo-Egyptian writer Randa Ghazy – not at all meant just for ‘young readers’.