The South and Intercultural Dialogue in Contemporary Italian Literature

This course explores how contemporary Italian literature portrays the South, focusing on its unique identity, cultural heritage, and evolving narratives. Southern writers have shaped a literary frontier that blends social critique, mystery, historical memory, and present-day issues, while also engaging in dialogue with migrant literature.

Through the works of authors such as Camilleri, Sciascia, Venezia, Pasolini, and Abate, we will analyze how the South is represented from within, rather than from an external perspective. Our journey will be enriched by audiovisual materials (films, podcasts) that highlight the diversity of voices and themes. Rather than a static or monolithic concept, the South emerges as a dynamic space of exchange, resisting simplified ideas of progress and pointing toward the future of literature as a space for connection and dialogue.

In the landscape of Italian literature, the contribution of Southern writers, despite the diversity of styles, has allowed for the identification of a true frontier, characterized by well-recognizable traits that range from denunciation to mystery, from the memory of the past to current issues, and extending to intercultural dialogue with migrant literature. Telling the South from the South will be the objective of this course, in which, through a significant sample of voices – Camilleri, Sciascia, Venezia, Pasolini, Abate – we will embark on a literary journey also supported by audiovisual materials (films, podcasts), where the idea of the South presents itself as a plural concept that resists the singular narrative of progress and indicates the future of literature in a movement of exchange and relationship with the other.