Beyond Borders: Transnational Italy

Abstract: Italian immigration’s influence on modern Argentine culture is hard to overstate: over 60% of Argentina’s population today has at least one Italian ancestor, with the Italian language being the second most common first language in the country. Italian significantly influenced the Argentine Spanish dialect, especially in the port city of Buenos Aires, providing many slang and loan words and affecting speech patterns and accents. In fact, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica, “Italian influence on Argentine culture became the most important of any immigrant group.” My essay traces the linguistic, economic, and social history of Italo-Argentine culture beginning with the first wave of immigration in the late 19th century, integration through the two World Wars, finally into the present day. Special focus is placed on Italo-Argentine cultural institutions which have persisted despite recurring anti-immigrant sentiment, including the L’Italiano Italian-language newspaper and Italian Chamber of Commerce in Argentina. A conversation with a member of the Chamber’s Board of Directors, Marcelo Bomrad, was an integral part of this research.

Author Bio: Sophia is a third-year undergraduate student at CAS, studying Romance Languages (Italian and Portuguese) and Journalism. She is also pursuing an accelerated Masters degree at NYU in International Relations and professional coursework in Translation at NYU SPS. Her writing has been published in several commercial and academic publications. She is currently studying abroad at NYU Florence after spending part of her first year there with the Liberal Studies First Year Away program. In New York, she work-studies at the Italian Studies Department, and hopes to one day work for the US Foreign Service.

Abstract: The Central Mediterranean route is the path that many people take in pursuit of a new life. Libya is the main transit point for refugees and migrants trying to reach Europe by sea, but thousands of migrants are held in Libyan detention centers before ever reaching the coasts of Lampedusa, the southernmost island of Italy. Recent data has shown that upon arrival, migrants and refugees face significantly higher risks of serious mental health problems. Furthermore, those in need of psychological assistance are severely neglected at reception centers which are underfunded and ill equipped to handle their needs. Mental health and psychosocial support is not a one-size-fits-all approach and appropriate strategies differ from one population to another. This project aims to highlight the recent data behind migrant trauma and explore available methods to address the gap between psychosocial needs and accessibility. I focus on three elements: approaching ambiguous loss, building Psychological First Aid, and dismantling barriers to professional care.

Author Bio: Ashley Crowder is a junior at CAS majoring in Psychology and minoring in Italian Studies. During her freshman year, she had the opportunity to study abroad in Florence which is where she began to study Italian language and culture. Ashley is passionate about her education and the potential that it holds for herself and the world. Migration is an integral part of Italian culture in the contemporary world. This research has given her the opportunity to merge two of her greatest interests to focus on an underrepresented issue that affects millions.

Abstract: The Story of a New Name, Elena Ferrante’s second novel in the Neapolitan quartet, is a tale of transfigurations, and even translations, of identity and location. Elena, our protagonist, not only uproots her life in order to attend college, but moreover to escape the Naples which constitutes the theatre of the previous novel. This inescapable landscape, written into their friendship and formative to their outlooks on life, is carried by them both, regardless of how far they stray from home. For both Elena and Lila, childhood is at an end, and consequently, both are married by the end of the novel – crossing from adolescence into (at least a façade) of adulthood. How each woman negotiates her own identity and freedom within the confines of marriage is the central investigation I plan on undergoing. In this paper, I will examine how the pact of marriage is negotiated in relation to the characters social statuses as women and how this negotiation is rendered in Anne Goldstein’s English translation and Elsa Damien’s French translation of the work. I am especially interested in the language ascribed to Lila and Elena, respectively, how this language plays with difference and sameness: whether they are set up at diametrically opposed models of marriage or presented as facets of a singular (perhaps inevitable) fate. One might ask to what extent the formula of elective affinities is at play (c.f. Goethe) or is being deconstructed by Ferrante herself. This essay brings in the work of Walter Benjamin (Task of the Translator) as well as Stiliana Milkova’s previous writings on Ferrante (Elena Ferrante as World Literature.)

Author Bio: Esmé DeCoster is a senior in the Comparative Literature Department. Originally from Seattle, WA, her interests include Translation Studies, Middle Eastern Studies, as well as the Legal Histories of Borders and Citizenship. She previously attended St. John’s College in Maryland, where she was studying classics. Regrettably, the beginning of the Pandemic coincided with her entrance to NYU. Esmé has translated Sophocles’ Antigone (into English) as well as Simone De Beauvoir’s Second Sex (into English). She enjoys learning languages and is currently studying Turkish & Arabic. (Moreover, slowly but surely, she is being persuaded to take Italian). She lives in the Upper West Side with her cat at present, desperately fighting for her indoor plants to thrive and failing, enduringly.

Abstract: The far-right forces in Italy justify their anti-immigrant movement as a protection of their identity. Particularly, they believe that the purity in Italian blood, culture and religion is “contaminated” by immigrants. Nevertheless, it is problematic to assert an artificial concept is “pure” in racial and cultural senses. Especially when we talk about nationalism, nothing is naturally pure unless they are defined to be so. Therefore, it is important to ask: was Italy a pure Italy since the foundation of the nation? When did Italy become a “pure” Italy? Why does “purity” matter? What are some actions taken to make Italy “pure” and what are the consequences of these actions? And what are some connections between Italy’s past in forging an identity and current racism in Italy?

To answer these questions, I will examine the forging of Italy as a nation and Italian as a people as a dynamic process. The presentation will focus on forging Italian self from the narration of history from Aryanism and Mediterraneanism perspectives; the racism that was and is imposed by Italian governments on African and Jewish people to exclude others; and the propagation of the racial ideology through mass media.

Author Bio: Alex Liu is a sophomore and a double major in Math and Physics. During his second semester at NYU Shanghai, he learned a lot about the formation of Chinese national identity in a course called The Concept of China. This semester, he took the course Black Italia, in which students discussed the identity of those who are considered as "others" in the Italian society. Alex saw this course as a good opportunity to apply his previous knowledge about national identity to analyze the formation of Italian identities.