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Italians in South Africa : challenges in the representation of an Italian identity

Bibliography: leaves 72-75.

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Milanese, Alessia
Other Authors: Buranello, Robert
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: School of Languages and Literatures 2014
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access_status_str Open Access
author Milanese, Alessia
author2 Buranello, Robert
author_browse Buranello, Robert
Milanese, Alessia
author_facet Buranello, Robert
Milanese, Alessia
author_sort Milanese, Alessia
collection Thesis
description Bibliography: leaves 72-75.
format Thesis
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institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:33:41.762Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2014
publishDateRange 2014
publishDateSort 2014
publisher School of Languages and Literatures
publisherStr School of Languages and Literatures
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source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/7953 Italians in South Africa : challenges in the representation of an Italian identity Milanese, Alessia Buranello, Robert Literary Studies Bibliography: leaves 72-75. Through a selection of material written by Italians in South Africa, this study aims to discuss the difficulties and challenges faced by Italian emigrant writers in representing their identity. The study places itself in the context of other studies in the field of i/emigrant, minority and ethnic studies in as much as the body of work, similarly to i/emigrant texts written in other parts of the world, has been to date considered of marginal significance or has not been examined at all. This study instead considers the opportunities of analysis that texts such as these represent and offers motivations for the need to engage with them. To analyse these texts offers the possibility to observe the relative status of the reader/critic and also to be open to the process of identity creation which does not exist in a vacuum but rather through the exchange and relations held between people of different linguistic, socio-political, historical and cultural backgrounds. With specific regard to material written by Italians in South Africa, an area in which research has up to now been fairly limited, it is argued that the tendency is for writers to emphasise a nationalistic and patriotic definition of Italian identity. This is in part as a result of the pressure emigrants face when confronted by their new cultural, linguistic and geographic setting. The tendency towards patriotic and nationalistic sentiment has also been encouraged during specific moments of Italy's history, and that is, the years leading up to Italy's unification and declaration of its nationhood status (the Risorgimento) and during fascism. The texts analysed are a letter (dated 1833) of a settler to the Cape, one Rocco Catoggio; the war time diary (published in a literary and political Italian newspaper in 1901) by a certain Camillo Ricchiardi, a volunteer and Boer sympathiser during the South African War (1889 - 1902); newspaper articles published by Italian Prisoners of War in the Zonderwater Camp during the Second World War and the biography and chronology by Adolfo G. Bini on the history of Italians in South Africa. 2014-10-02T10:05:03Z 2014-10-02T10:05:03Z 2002 Master Thesis Masters MA http://hdl.handle.net/11427/7953 eng application/pdf School of Languages and Literatures Faculty of Humanities University of Cape Town
spellingShingle Literary Studies
Milanese, Alessia
Italians in South Africa : challenges in the representation of an Italian identity
thesis_degree_str Master's
title Italians in South Africa : challenges in the representation of an Italian identity
title_full Italians in South Africa : challenges in the representation of an Italian identity
title_fullStr Italians in South Africa : challenges in the representation of an Italian identity
title_full_unstemmed Italians in South Africa : challenges in the representation of an Italian identity
title_short Italians in South Africa : challenges in the representation of an Italian identity
title_sort italians in south africa challenges in the representation of an italian identity
topic Literary Studies
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/7953
work_keys_str_mv AT milanesealessia italiansinsouthafricachallengesintherepresentationofanitalianidentity