Multiple Italy

The sensational Fred L Gardaphe at Casa Italia Library, Chicago!

Fred Gardaphe' pt2 Aug 3, 2024 Q & A about his books, writing, his family, 29min Distinguished Professor of Italian American Studies Queens College, NY, Long Island; returns to his childhood community of Melrose Park, IL, and Casa Italia,...

Multiple Italy has a new look! Today I'm talking about the transnationalization of pizza and of the Neapolitan pizza, starting in Taipei. Aren't you curious?

Transnational Pizza: From Napoli to New York, from Melbourne to Taipei | Una pizza transnazionale: da Napoli a New York, da Melbourne a Taipei [ENG] In the last few months, when I’m sitting in front of a pizza, I find myself thinking about Taipei instead of Naples. It’s a bit of an unexpected turn of events for a Neapolitan gu…

Multiple Italy(s) is coming back!
Qualche sera fa sono andato a vedere i Blonde Redhead al Milk di Torino, un concerto che mi ha molto emozionato e mi ha ricordato perché li considero tutt'oggi il mio gruppo preferito. Ne ho scritto un report per L'indiependente, cercando di spaziare tra la performance, il locale, il nuovo disco, le mie memorie della band, qualche riflessione su cosa è rimasto del nostro indie: https://www.lindiependente.it/blonde-redhead-torino/
Approfittando dell'occasione, ho deciso di dedicare ai Blonde Redhead anche un post su Multiple Italy(s) per avviare un rilancio del mio blog dedicato all'Italia diasporica. Ho riflettuto su come il background italiano emerge dalla loro musica in cui si mescolano suoni newyorkesi e giapponesi, ma anche sull'importanza della presenza all'estero dei gruppi dell'indie nazionale nella trasmissione di sonorità alternative al di fuori dei confini: multipleitaly.com/2024/06/14/transnational-italian-indie-blonde-redhead-thirty-years-later-indie-italiano-transnazionale-trentanni-di-blonde-redhead/
Buon ascolto e buona lettura!

Transnational Italian Indie: Blonde Redhead, Thirty Years Later | Indie italiano transnazionale: Trent’anni di Blonde Redhead [ENG] There are encounters that seem designed by fate. Looking at Blonde Redhead on the stage, I thought I was back to Turin just in time to see them again: Kazu Makino on the left, Amedeo Pace on …

Passeggiando per il minuscolo, bellissimo centro, ci si fa rapidamente l'idea che Pesaro sia la città di Gioacchino Rossini e Alessandro Baronciani. Se il ritratto e il nome del primo appaiono sui teatri e nei numerosi musei della città, i disegni del secondo si affiacciano dalle pareti dei bar e degli altrettanto numerosi negozi di dischi. Quando mi hanno invitato qui a parlare di Pasolini, non avevo un'immagine precisa di che tipo di città avrei trovato. Per me il nome di Pesaro era legato esclusivamente a memorie acustiche, essendo la sede di una scena di musica indie locale che mi è sempre piaciuto definire Pesaro Wave, da dove sono usciti, oltre agli Altro di Baronciani, alcuni gruppi che ho molto amato come i Soviet Soviet e i Be Forest. In questi pochi giorni invece ho scoperto che oltre dalla frequentazione di chilometri di bellissime spiagge che congiungono la più pacata riviera marchigiana con quella celebre e smodata riviera romagnola che mi porta direttamente tra le pagine di Tondelli, la comunità di Pesaro è contraddistinta da un grande amore e desiderio di cultura. Quando sono arrivato a Kuala Lumpur e ho cominciato a interagire con gli expat europei che si erano trasferiti lì, alcuni mesi fa, i discorsi di tutti mi sono apparsi velati di una certa nostalgia per la vita culturale francese o tedesca. Ho pensato che fosse la classica spocchia di matrice orientalista che contraddistingue persone che non avevano cercato di integrarsi in un contesto culturale diverso dal loro, che in effetti, non è che non esista, essendo la cultura in Asia dettata da ritmi molto diversi da quelli europei. Sarà che Pesaro quest'anno è stata eletta capitale italiana della cultura, sarà che di grandi eventi non ne arrivano tantissimi, ma partecipare agli appuntamenti di questo bellissimo festival al ritorno in Europa mi ha aiutato a capire cosa intendevano questi europei in Malesia: da italiani, ci si dimentica rapidamente di cosa significa vivere la cultura come entusiasmo, come ebbrezza, perfino se vogliamo come moda, con un trasporto quasi viscerale che credo di aver visto esclusivamente in Italia. Ieri alle 10 di un sabato sera ero seduto in un teatro pieno di persone riunitesi per ascoltare Massimo Recalcati descrivere il desiderio secondo Jacques Lacan. La sera precedente, ho parlato di Pasolini in un contesto analogo, un venerdì alle 8, in un altro teatro. Molte delle persone che hanno partecipato al festival hanno trascorso la rassegna seguendo eventi dalla mattina alle 10 a notte inoltrata. Io mi sono preso una mezza giornata per approfittare anche delle bellissime spiaggie (colpevole). Sarà o meno l'evento celebrativo a facilitare il contesto, ma mi perdonerà Baronciani, per me Pesaro sarà per sempre la capitale italiana della cultura, e continuerò a pensare, anche nei miei momenti di maggiore esterofilia, che solo in Italia puoi trovare un borghetto di meno di 100.000 persone a margine di una delle spiagge più affollate dell'estate adriatica così pieno di teatri, musei e librerie, forse in percentuale pro-capite maggiore al mondo. Grazie, K*M Festival, per avermi dato la possibilità di essere parte di questa meraviglia! *MFestival

Buon compleanno, Pier Paolo! Ci vediamo tra un mese esatto a Pesaro 😊

My last week at Monash University Malaysia started with the presentation of my research in the Research Seminar Series of the School of Art and Social Sciences. I had the pleasure and privilege of sharing my work with a group of lecturers and researchers from the School and from the department of Modern Languages of University of Malaya. It was extremely fascinating to discuss the diasporas and transnationalism applied to the Italian case with an audience of scholars of mixed background in humanities, quite different from colleagues working in Modern languages or specialized in Italian Studies....

Crossing Diasporas through Multiple Voices: A Transnational Retelling of Italian Culture at Monash University Malaysia | Incrociare diaspore attraverso le loro voci molteplici: Una narrazione transnazionale della cultura italiana a Monash... [ENG] My last week at Monash University Malaysia started with the presentation of my research in the Research Seminar Series of the School of Art and Social Sciences. I had the pleasure and privile…

January 29th, 12 PM Malaysia time :)

Happy new year! For Multiple Italy(s), 2024 has started with an encounter in Kuala Lumpur with Malaysian Italian writer Masturah Alatas, one of the twelve voices constituting the first block of texts hosted by Voices of Multiple Italy | Voci di un’Italia Molteplice (forthcoming). I followed the presentations of her freshly-reprinted volume The Life in the Writing: Syed Hussein Alatas, a biography of her father, an important and influential voice in the postcolonial debate on and in Southeast Asia, at Gerakbudaya, bookshop and publisher of the book; at University Malaya; and NEUC Department of Southeast Asian Studies 新纪元大学学院东南亚学系. Through the voice of Masturah, the studies of Syed Hussein wonderfully created a shared groundwork for a conversation held in the extended community of multicultural and multilingual Malaysia. More on the Alatas, the book and the events in the first blog post of the year on multipleitaly.com :)
https://multipleitaly.com/2024/01/12/multiple-alatas-from-syed-farid-to-masturah-alatas-molteplici-da-syed-farid-a-masturah/

Welcome back! After a few months of hiatus, due to the conclusion of TransIT project and my relocation to Monash University Malaysia, let’s start again at the beginning of a new year, full of good wishes and in search for a new autonomous dimension for this blog, which will gradually migrate to a new home. The works are proceeding apace and soon…...

Multiple Alatas, From Syed Farid to Masturah | Alatas Molteplici, da Syed Farid a Masturah [EN] Welcome back! After a few months of hiatus, due to the conclusion of TransIT project and my relocation to Monash University Malaysia, let’s start again at the beginning of a new year, full of …

One country, many coffees. Lavazza café in Xiamen, China; Coffe Vergnano in an Indian restaurant and Illy coffee at a local supermarket in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; specialty coffee spot in Bangsar, Malaysia. From Turin and Trieste to the world and back.

Big announcement from Trieste! www.multipleitaly.com will host Voices of Multiple Italy | Voci di un'Italia molteplice, the main research output of my MSC funded research project TransIT. Hence Multiple Italy(s) will contain an interactive, bilingual online multimedia anthology of texts presenting the multiple trajectories of Italian culures across its global transit. Check it out!

Grande annuncio da Trieste! www.multipleitaly.com ospiterà Voices of Multiple Italy | Voci di un'Italia molteplice, il risultato principale del mio progetto di riceca MSC TransIT. Dunque Multiple Italy(s) ospiterà un'antologia online bilingue e interattiva che descrive le traiettorie multiple della cultura italiana nel suo transito globale. Tenete gli occhi aperti!

Work in progress! Nelle prossime settimane www.multipleitaly.com sarà un cantiere che documenta la trasformazione del blog di TransIT un un apparato digitale che ospiterà l'antologia online Voices of Multiple Italy.l | Voci di un'Italia molteplice. Il blog non sparirà ma sarà integrato nel nuovo sito! Immaginatelo come il quartiere dell'Isola di Milano in questa foto, coi grattacieli che emergono alle spalle delle case popolari di vecchia generazione. A presto su multipleotaly.com!

Work in progress! In the next few weeks www.multipleiitaly.com will be a construction site documenting the transition from TransIT blog to the online anthology Voices of Multiple Italy | Voci di un'Italia molteplice. The blog will still exist, but will be integrated into the new website. You can imagine it by taking inspiration from this picture of Milan's area of Isola, in which skyscrapers emerge behind the old-fashioned council houses. See you soon on multipleitaly.com!

Nel periodo speso a Cardiff University, sono stato parte di una conversazione sulla decolonizzazione della ricerca e delle pratiche di insegnamento che è andata avanti lungo l'intero anno accademico. Un argomento di tale rilievo non poteva mancare a Sapienza, dove tra alcuni giorni numerosi tra i maggiori esperti italiani si riuniranno a discutere questa tematica in questo evento.

In my period at Cardiff University, I was part of an ongoing discussion on the decolonization of research and teaching practices which went on throughout the entire year. A number of remarkable scholars will discuss the same in Rome, at Sapienza University, in a few days. Giulia Fabbri

A fine project exploring beat literature in Italy through digital humanities and project base learning. Groundbreaking! Stefano Morello Cristina Iuli

The Beats in/and Italy Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici, Università del Piemonte Orientale

Perhaps Welsh author Jan Morris is right when she writes that the unique charm of this city lies in its nowhereness, which makes this place a powerful multiplier of the cultures which is crossed by. A year ago, I found some Californian hedonism in the swimmers in Barcola and Friulian reverberations in the multiple voices of the local dialects much loved by Pasolini. This year, I recognized the coquettish vivacity of the Parisian boulevards in Viale XX Settembre, but also a few tiny, delightful places where you can have a spritz and feel out of time, recalling the drinks had by Svevo and Joyce. Trieste does not have its own music because it resonates with all those that flow through its neighbourhoods, Bach's sonatas for cellos, Francois Hardy's ye ye pop, Marjan Farsad Iranian ballads or the Balkan folk rhythms played by local Istrian bands fill it with different souls that confirm its uniqueness. Yet it is often difficult for many to understand why leaving this place becomes harder each time.

You may have noticed from the social channels devoted to TransIT that we are travelling in Italy again! Multiple Italy(s) resumes the communications after a few months of silence from Trieste, a wonderfully transnational and intercultural city, one of the places where I returned after about a year to spend the last weeks of the project and doublecheck a few texts that can be exclusively found in a few libraries in Italy....

In TransIT towards Voices of Multiple Italy | In transito verso Voci di un’Italia molteplice [ENG] You may have noticed from the social channels devoted to TransIT that we are travelling in Italy again! Multiple Italy(s) resumes the communications after a few months of silence from Trieste…

The one when you arrive in Trieste just on time to remember remarkable anniversaries... happy 100th, Zeno! |
Quando passi da Trieste giusto in tempo per ricordare anniversari importanti... buon centesimo, Zeno!
Thanks for informing!

Italian songwriter Salvatore "Toto" Cutugno passed away today, aged 80. He will be remembered for his popular song "L'italiano", released in 1983 at Festival di Sanremo. The song quickly became a transnational case for its ability to connect Italians scattered across the world, but also for creating and disseminating the image of Italy as a country of light hearted daydreaming flaneurs who just claimed their will to sing and enjoy life in its most simple and genuine rituals. From a certain viewpoint, the simple lyrics and the easy tune of the song can be read as a way to assert the values of the traditional Italian lifestyle of the time against the assimilation to rhythms dictated by consumerist society, in a period when Italian society was undergoing deep transformations. Perhaps in this aspect resides its worldwide success, but also the peculiar image Italians held in the global imaginary. Ciao, Toto!

Toto Cutugno - L'Italiano (1983) Toto Cutugno - L'Italiano (Original Video French TV 1983)

Building Alliances across diasporas: Happy anniversary, Confucius Institute! | A proposito di alleanze attraverso diaspore: Buon anniversario, Istituto Confucio!

Follow the link: new post on http://multipleitaly.com

|EN| My project enters its final phase in the middle of summer—a season that in the UK only happens any other day, as it is well known—and while Cardiff University celebrates the last activities before closing doors. Among these, a few days ago I had the pleasure to attend the marvelous ceremony celebrating the 15th anniversary of the Confucius Institute…...

Happy anniversary, Confucius Institute! | Buon anniversario, Istituto Confucio! |EN| My project enters its final phase in the middle of summer—a season that in the UK only happens any other day, as it is well known—and while Cardiff University celebrates the last activities be…

In Italy, in these days secondary school pupils graduate by taking the final exam called "esame di maturità" (maturity exam), which is considered a rite of passage to adulthood and represents a sort of proof of the coming-of-age of a generation of young Italians. The first test is traditionally a composition: pupils are invited to reflect on topics of national culture and common interests selected by the Minister of Public Education. The publication of those topics always raise great discussions on newspapers, social media and among the audience. This year the Italian newspaper La Republica comments that those topics are outdated and represent an Italy that does not exist, made of cisgender white sovranist nostalgic male individuals with no mention to the migration crisis nor the environtmental crisis, and showing no interest for diversity nor a more realistic representation of the woman school audience approaching the exam. Is it true that this Italy does not exist? The policies endorsed by the national government would rather say the opposite.

In Italia, in questi giorni gli alunni della scuola secondaria si diplomano sostenendo l'"esame di Maturità" , che è considerato un vero e proprio rito di passaggio all'età adultaper una intera generazione di giovani italiani. Il primo quesito è tradizionalmente un tema: gli alunni sono invitati a riflettere su quesiti di cultura nazionale e attualità selezionati dal Ministro della Pubblica Istruzione. La pubblicazione delle tracce suscita sempre grandi discussioni sui giornali, sui social media e tra il pubblico. Quest'anno il quotidiano italiano La Republica commenta che questi temi sono superati e rappresentano un'Italia che non esiste, fatta di sovranisti maschi bianchi e nostalgici senza alcuna menzione della crisi migratoria né della crisi ambientale, e non mostrando alcun interesse per la diversità né per una rappresentazione più realistica del pubblico femminile che sostiene l'esame. È vero che questa Italia non esiste? Le politiche sostenute dal governo nazionale direbbero piuttosto il contrario.

Eterosessuali, maschi, nostalgici: ecco gli italiani secondo le tracce (inattuali) del tema alla Maturità Nessun accenno alle donne, ai migranti, alla crisi ambientale nei titoli dei compiti assegnati agli studenti. Nel 2023 si va verso il futuro sognando il passato

I celebrated my April 25, as is often the case, by writing about Pier Paolo Pasolini, an author who is strongly politically connected to the themes of resistance because of personal reasons in the first place, having been his brother Guido killed during the civil war that broke out in Italy as the last moment of World War II; furthermore, he supported the condemnation of all kinds of fascism in his works, including the most insidiously fascism often hidden in postwar new liberalism....

A Transnational Anthem for April 25 | Bella (ciao) come un 25 aprile transnazionale [ENG] I celebrated my April 25, as is often the case, by writing about Pier Paolo Pasolini, an author who is strongly politically connected to the themes of resistance because of personal reasons i…

This year the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute will go West and encounter the East, devoting their Annual Conference to the Pacific Rim and focusing on exhanges and transits between Italy and California, China, more broadly Asia. If you are not in New York on the 28th and 29th, you can follow the event online from here: https://conta.cc/41pSTo9
Full program here:https://calandrainstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/2023_conf_program-1.pdf

Quale che sia la vostra diaspora, buon 25 aprile, buona liberazione!

Ovunque voi siate, buon 25 Aprile, buona Liberazione! And if you want to read more, please check my blog Multipleitaly(s): https://multipleitaly.com/2023/04/28/a-transnational-anthem-for-april-25-bella-ciao-come-un-25-aprile-transnazionale/

Il mio primo 25 Aprile in UK, nel 2012, mi presentai al lavoro con una cravatta rosso fuoco, che nessuno notò. Buona resistenza dovunque voi siate!

Nanni Moretti a Hyde Park (Aprile) Spezzone del film Aprile (1998) in cui Moretti tiene un discorso al Hyde Park corner di Londra.

A few weeks ago, a pillar of Italian American history sadly passed away. Writer and scholar Helen Barolini was a pioneer in the studies of the woman experience of the Italian diaspora. Her novel Umbertina brings us in her family history characterized by multiple migrations between Italy and the United States. In many ways, Barolini gave us an accurate idea of how many different possibilities of being Italian in America one can recognize. She was almost one century old. Goodbye and thanks for all this, Helen.

I wrote about Barolini and the way she represented Italianness through the literary depiction of Italian domestic objects here: https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/150613/1/tis.21018.chi.pdf

Helen Barolini, Chronicler of Italian American Women, Dies at 97 As a novelist, a poet and an editor, she sought to illuminate rarely told stories of her immigrant female forebears in a new land.

The transnational circulation of contemporary Italian literature is one of the main topics of my project TransIT, and interestingly enough, the two most important events devoted to support this circulation will happen shortly in the next few days, making the next last days of April very relevant for Italian literature worldwide. FILL, Festival of Italian Literature in London, funded in 2017 by an independent group of London based Italian authors, journalists, translators and academics, will celebrate its fourth edition, the first one after the pandemic emergency, at the Coronet Theater in Notthing Hill this Saturday, 22nd of April....

Two Nations Reunited by a Common Language: About Festivals of Contemporary Italian Literature in the UK and the US | Riuniti da una lingua comune: I festival della letteratura italiana contemporanea tra UK e US The transnational circulation of contemporary Italian literature is one of the main topics of my project TransIT, and interestingly enough, the two most important events devoted to support this cir…

One year ago today, I watched Everything Everywhere All at Once for the first time. I am still trying to figure out what the hell have I watched and why it concerns us so deeply.

The Furthest East | La Cina è più vicina? [ENG] I have enrolled in a Mandarin class. Partly, I made this decision by following the evolution of my research project, partly because the presence of the Chinese community has been a strong ele…

Happy start of the week from TransIT! Speaking of diasporas, a few days ago the Times published an article on the evolution of the Polish diaspora which had a great resonance on the island: apparently, a large number of Poles have returned to their home country in the last few years, and fewer and fewer Poles are immigrating here. Full article available here (for a fee):
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/where-did-all-the-poles-go-fjkm5nvq0
Some more history on the Polish diaspora and their immigration to the UK (for free): https://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/the-displacement-of-poles-and-their-subsequent-resettlement-in-the-united-kingdom-1939-1949/

Where did all the Poles go? Surrounded by ancestral portraits, the Countess of Carnarvon sits in her morning room, contemplating the challenge of running Highclere Castle. A cloud settles