Exophonic poetics in contemporary Italy. Versification and movement in the works of Hasan Atiya Al Nassar, Barbara Pumhösel and Gëzim Hajdari

Abstract

This thesis performs an analysis of poetry and migration in contemporary Italy. It explores poetic works produced in Italian by three authors born in non-Italophone countries: Hasan Atiya Al Nassar (Iraq), Barbara Pumhösel (Austria) and Gëzim Hajdari (Albania). Although their birthplaces are diverse and their migratory circumstances are heterogeneous, these authors share the period of their arrival in Italy (from the 1980s to the early 1990s), their exophonic practice and the ability to develop a significant poetic experience in their second language. My dissertation constitutes an unprecedented investigation of the stylistic features of these works, highlighting both the common traits and the distinctive elements that characterise their individual voices, and thereby delineating a preliminary phenomenology of the qualities of exophonic poetics in the Italian context. The dissertation is organised into four chapters. The first chapter discusses the theoretical and critical grounding of the research, illustrates the position of exophonic voices in contemporary Italy (1990-2010), builds the corpus of works, introduces the authors’ profiles and defines the methodology and criteria for analysis. The ensuing three chapters are each dedicated to one author, and contain a full metrical-stylistic analysis of the selected works, focusing on the occurrence of poetic forms, the use of metre and the incidence and value of rhythmical patterns. The conclusion, expanding upon the material collected in the textual analysis, aims to trace a preliminary phenomenology of exophonic versification in contemporary Italy. Firstly it elaborates upon the hybridisation of poetic forms, identifying movement as a foundational element in exophonic versification. Secondly it discusses the texts’ formal connections to conventional metres in the Italian tradition (such as endecasillabo) and cases of innovation or reinterpretation of these patterns. Thirdly it reflects on the use of language in exophonic productions and identifies the reflection on language as a trope in these works. More generally, my thesis aims to investigate the aesthetic impact of exophonic poetics on the contemporary Italian literary scene, and then to immerse the Italian example in a broader transnational context. It also endeavours to discover and develop instruments and strategies for the future stylistic analysis of exophonic poetic productions.