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Introduction: Transcultural Exchanges and Encounters in Italy

This special issue explores sites of contact, connection and exchange in modern Italy. These can be understood as open sites of interaction and juxtaposition, where people and ideas from across the globe come and go. They are sites shaped by important trajectories of trade or distinctive histories of colonialism, imperialism, or globalisation. When encounters occur in contexts of asymmetrical relations of power – colonisation, modern warfare, even gender relations – any exchange or contact also entails confrontation. In the uneven exchanges that result, language can be used to create or manipulate perceptions that are formed when worlds collide. Yet modern diasporas also have the potential to connect cultures and lead to collaboration and renewal, through the establishment of wider-ranging networks and positive forms of exchange. This volume contributes to the study of migratory encounters and exchanges from the particular angle of transcultural scholarship. The notion of transculturality is drawn from the work of Wolfgang Welsch (1999), who observes that ‘cultural conditions today are largely characterised by mixes and permeations’, a ‘passing through’ of traditional cultural boundaries (197). Contemporary cultures are marked by differentiation and complexity, combined with increased technological interconnection, and at the same time hybridisation. In examining instances of Italian transcultural contact and connection and their representations, the contributors to this special issue seek to illuminate current debates around identity (politics), ideology, globalisation and superdiversity, memory and history, imagined communities, and individual bodies. Their articles explore writing, language, visual arts, music and intercultural communication as spaces for experimentation and play, protest and witnessing, for trying out new identities and giving voice to identities ignored or threatened. Whether looking at Italy’s fascination and negotiation with otherness and the foreign from an historical perspective, or exploring the role of new voices and genres in the context of Italy’s place in today’s globalised world, the contributions all explore transcultural exchange as an opportunity for creativity, critique, revitalisation and reflection. The collection explores the diversity that comes from the ‘transcultural permeations’ (Welsch 1999, 203) present in Italy today. It aims to stimulate reflections upon the nature of research and to engage with the ongoing reshaping and expanding of the field of Italian Studies in the twenty-first century. Part of the originality of this selection of articles is that it showcases the interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary interest in the notion of Transcultural Italy. The wide mix of disciplinary approaches represented here – anthropology and ethnography; history; film, literary, culture and discourse studies – attests to this diversity. The topic of Italian transcultural/transnational exchanges