04.05.2023 Gastvortrag "Sinoitalian cultural products. Graphic novels, history and histories of Chinese migration to Italy"
As part of the course "Introduction to Modern Chinese Literature", the lecture "Sinoitalian cultural products. Graphic novels, history and histories of Chinese migration to Italy" will be held on 04 May 2023, 14:00-16:00, Room 301, Johannisstraße 10, 10117 Berlin.
Speaker: Andrea Scibetta, PhD
Full time researcher in “Chinese language and literature”, University for Foreigners of Siena, Italy
Thanks to the publication and to the diffusion of an increasing number of contributions written by first- and second-generation Chinese migrant writers, it is possible to imagine “Sinoitalian literature” in a phase of gradual affirmation. Understanding under such a definition works written in Italian, in Chinese, as well as experimentations of translinguistic practices, characterized by a certain degree of fluidity and dynamicity in switching from Italian to Chinese writing, there are currently several examples of authors who have managed to reach a relevant number of readers.
The main purpose of the current lecture is to focus the attention on the graphic novels “Primavere e autunni”(2015), “Chinamen” (2017) and “La Macchina Zero” (2021), produced by Matteo Demonte and Ciaj Rocchi. All these three works contribute to accurately re-construct the history of Chinese migration to Italy (and to Europe) through the narration of multiple personal, familiar and social events of several Chinese migrants.
After having described elements which encourage to understand these two graphic novels as strictly intertwined with Sinoitalian literature, an overview of the general structure and the common characteristics of both works will be introduced. After this, the main events represented in each graphic novel will be summarized and general considerations on some crucial points will be explained.
During the whole presentation, parallelisms with trends in modern and contemporary literature in Mainland China (中国现代、当代文学史) will be highlighted.