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Hip Pop Italian Style

The Postcolonial Imagination of Second-Generation Authors in Italy

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Postcolonial Italy

Part of the book series: Italian and Italian American Studies ((IIAS))

Abstract

Is there a postcolonial imagination in Italy today, and if so, what does it look like? The last two decades have witnessed a growing body of literature produced in Italy by migrant writers from Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe. Since the 1990s, they have enriched Italian culture and language with their contributions, even though their input has not been without contention.1 Yet this production has continued to grow with an increasing degree of experimentation in a variety of genres and media, including critical interventions in online journals, forums, blogs, and websites.2 This essay focuses on the literature of second-generation postcolonial writers collected in the anthologies Pecore Nere (Black Sheep, 2005) and Italiani per vocazione (Italians by Vocation, 2005), as well as on the creative work of the network Rete G2. While illuminating the impact and flaws of the current immigration and citizenship legislation, these authors offer an alternative, multiethnic, and multifaceted representation of Italy through astute aesthetic choices rooted in hip hop and popular culture.3 They are “experts” who transfigure their “street knowledge” into literature and art and are perhaps the best suited to critique the legal system because, unlike Italian (white) citizens, they have a firsthand knowledge of its workings and material consequences. Their analysis of Italian culture is particularly insightful because they access it from the vantage point of a diasporic sensitivity, one that is simultaneously Italian and international.

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Authors
  1. Clarissa Clò
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Cristina Lombardi-Diop Caterina Romeo

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© 2012 Cristina Lombardi-Diop and Caterina Romeo

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Clò, C. (2012). Hip Pop Italian Style. In: Lombardi-Diop, C., Romeo, C. (eds) Postcolonial Italy. Italian and Italian American Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137281463_19

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137281463_19

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-349-44817-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-28146-3

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