‘Integrated in the World of human Beings’: national Narrations in current Stories of Senegal clandestine Immigrants in Italy

Authors

  • Hanna Nohe Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms, Universität Bonn

Keywords:

Migration, African diaspora, Nation, Literature, Subaltern

Abstract

Current nationalist discourses in Europe are accumulating force and blaming mainly undesired immigrants, especially from Africa. Meanwhile, the latter continue to arrive in boats, often simply hoping for a better future. These two tendencies–the strengthening of nationalist discourse on the one hand, and a growing internationalization on the other hand–are observed by Homi Bhabha in his introduction to Nation and Narration (1990). However, how do these undocumented African immigrants take part in constructing the narration of the nation? Se Dio vuole (2011) by Papa Ngady Faye and Il mio viaggio della speranza (2011) by Bay Mademba relate such a situation. Without an official residency permit, the immigrants represent a double national absence: in Italy an administrative absence, and in Senegal a physical one. Nonetheless, both migrated narrating subjects obtain a narrative and social presence.

The present paper examines how the narrations of the Senegalese immigrants in Italy represent a national construction from below and how these narrations address the ambivalence mentioned. We will observe how the subjects present themselves as mediators between the two nations, which corresponds to a former-colony and a former-colonizer dynamics, and how they underline the conceptualization of nation as mainly human.

Author Biography

Hanna Nohe, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms, Universität Bonn

Hanna Nohe estudió Filología Hispánica e Inglesa en Friburgo, Salamanca y Berlín. Se doctoró en Bonn, París y Florencia con una tesis sobre las identidades culturales en la novela epistolar de viajeros orientales ficticios en el siglo XVIII, que se publicó bajo el título Fingierte Orientalen erschaffen Europa (Los orientales ficticios crean Europa, 2018) en la editorial Fink. Actualmente es profesora asistente e investigadora en Bonn donde analiza el sujeto migrante en la literatura actual del Sur Global en lenguas románicas, sobre la que ha publicado una serie artículos en revistas y volúmenes.

References

BHABHA, Homi K., "Introduction: narrating the nation". En: BHABHA, Homi K. (ed.), Nation and Narration. Oxon/New York: Routledge, 1990, 1-7.
BOELHOWER, William, "Speaking up, speaking out. The Figure of the Migrant as Common and Proper Name". En: GIULIANI, Luigi/TRAPASSI, Leonarda/MATOS, Javier (eds.), Far Away is Here. Lejos es aquí. Writing and migrations. Berlín: Frank & Timme, 2013, 101-121.
BOELHOWER, William, "Speaking Up, Speaking Out: Performing Migrant Identity in Two Italian African Memoirs". En: HOFMANN, Bettina/MUELLER, Monika (eds.), Performing Ethnicity, Performing Gender. New York/London: Routledge, 2016, 34-52.
BOURDIEU, Pierre, "Préface". En: SAYAD, Abdelmalek, La double absence. Des illusions de l’émigré aux souffrances de l’immigré. Prefacio de Pierre Bourdieu. París: Seuil, 1999, 9-14.
FAYE, Papa Ngady/COLLETTA, Antonella, Se Dio vuole. Il destino di un venditore di libri. Pontedera: Giovane Africa Edizioni, 2011.
MADEMBA, Bay, Il mio viaggio della speranza. Dal Senegal allʼItalia in cerca di fortuna. Pontedera: Giovane Africa Edizioni, 2011.
NOHE, Hanna, Entrevista con Giuseppe Cecconi y Fatou Ndiaye. Llevada a cabo el 03-03-2018 en Pontedera (inédita).
OAKESHOTT, Michael, On human conduct. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990 [1975].
SAYAD, Abdelmalek, La double absence. Des illusions de l’émigré aux souffrances de l’immigré. Prefacio de Pierre Bourdieu. París: Seuil, 1999.

Published

18-05-2020

How to Cite

Nohe, H. . (2020). ‘Integrated in the World of human Beings’: national Narrations in current Stories of Senegal clandestine Immigrants in Italy. Boletín De Literatura Comparada, 1(45), 73–91. Retrieved from https://revistas.uncu.edu.ar/ojs/index.php/boletinliteratura/article/view/3429

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Artículos