Divorce and dialogue: intertextuality in Amara Lakhous' Divorzio all'islamica a viale Marconi

Abstract

This study addresses the underdeveloped dialogue in contemporary intercultural relations between Italy and its ‘others’ to examine the ways in which Amara Lakhous' novel Divorzio all'islamica a viale Marconi (2010) [Divorce Islamic style in viale Marconi] articulates a postcolonial response to Pietro Germi's 1961 film Divorzio all'italiana [Divorce Italian style] by initiating an intercultural dialogue among preexistent and emerging cultures. Foregrounding intertextuality and ‘writing back’ in a postcolonial context as intercultural communication modes, this paper explores the intertextual relations between the novel and the film; it examines the use of irony and multivocal narrative in Lakhous' novel as strategies of intercultural mediation. Moreover, it interrogates the works' social, cultural, historical and linguistic movements to analyse the narrativizations of familiarity and estrangement. Divorzio all'islamica a viale Marconi enables a dialogue between local cultures and ‘guest’ cultures by tracing (obliterated) common histories, shared experiences and similar social and cultural predicaments across the northern and southern shores of the Mediterranean, remapping geographical and cultural terrains.

Questo saggio, che intende perlustrare le trame del dialogo, tuttora marginale negli studi interculturali contemporanei, tra l'Italia ed i suoi ‘altri’, propone un'analisi del romanzo di Amara Lakhous Divorzio all'islamica a viale Marconi (2010), inteso come risposta postcoloniale al film di Pietro Germi Divorzio all'italiana (1961) e come opera che instrada un dialogo tra culture preesistenti ed emergenti. Considerando l'intertestualità e la'riscrittura’ nel contesto postcoloniale come modalità di comunicazione interculturale, l'articolo esamina le relazioni intertestuali tra il romanzo ed il film, prestando particolare attenzione all'uso dell'ironia e della narrativa multi-vocale quali peculiari strategie di mediazione interculturale. Il saggio si sofferma inoltre sugli aspetti sociali, culturali, storici e linguistici del romanzo al fine di evidenziare la narrativizzazione dei concetti di familiarità ed estraniamento. Divorzio all'islamica a viale Marconi incoraggia un dialogo tra culture locali e culture'altre’, tracciando (ormai dimenticate) storie comuni, esperienze, condizioni sociali e culturali condivise tra le due sponde del Mediterraneo e, quindi, ri-mappando nuovi territori geografici e culturali.

Keywords:

• intercultural communication
• postcolonialism
• intertextuality
• Amara Lakhous
• Italy

Acknowledgment

This article was written in Glasgow, an inspiring city, to which I am eternally thankful. I am grateful to Alex McCabe for sharing with me months of reading and writing (and gluten-free cooking). Thanks also to the editors of this special issue, Alison Phipps and Rebecca Kay. Finally, I owe Zoë Wicomb, Stefano Versace, Maria Vaccarella and John Miller a special debt of gratitude for reading drafts and providing feedback.

Notes

1. ‘[b]isogna fare un grande sforzo per comunicare. Penso che sia necessario capire il punto di vista degli altri, dobbiamo metterci nei loro panni’. All translations from Italian in Amara Lakhous' text are my own.

2. Nationalist discourses are promoted in Italy through ‘the revival of a mythology of Italian national identity based on imaginary notions of shared civic values, a territory linked to a common culture, and, at times, even a genealogical descent’ and through the mobilization of ‘latent Fascist fantasies of racial purity’ (Bouchard, 2010, p. 106).

3. The term ‘Afro-Italian’ metaphorically reproduces current geo-political relationships between Africa and Italy: the hyphen keeps Africa away from Italian borders, it stands in between to curb interactions between the two shores, like European border control agency FRONTEX does.

4. Moderate, left wing Italian broadsheet La Repubblica reports that the second most common surname in Milan is a Chinese one, as they put it: ‘l'orientale Hu’ [the oriental Hu]; however – the article reassures – no ‘invasion’ of Italy's demographic records is actually taking place (15 April 2012). Whilst acknowledging a change in the country's ethnic and social profile, Repubblica reproduces in plainly orientalist language the alarmist rhetoric surrounding migration.

5. In this context it is worth thinking about the significance of the ‘colonial language’; is it just the language of the former colonial power in the country of origin (in Lakhous' case, French)? Is it not also the dominant language in the receiving country in which the migrant is usually treated as a subaltern?

6. Divorzio all'islamica a viale Marconi not only narrativizes the lives of ‘foreign’ migrants in Italy, it also forcefully reminds readers about the many Italians migrating abroad. Safia/Sofia's Italian friend, Giulia, announces that she is moving with her partner to Australia because in Italy ‘non c’è futuro’ [there is no future]; ‘Gli italiani lasciano l'Italia pr cercare fortuna altrove! Ma noi immigrati veniamo qui per lo stesso ed identico motivo’ [Italians leave Italy to find better chances elsewhere. But we immigrants come here for the very same reason!] (Lakhous, 2010, p. 152) This is another instance of shared experiences where differences between Italians and migrants are obliterated.

7. ‘a Roma sono davvero uno straniero’ (Lakhous, 2010, p. 12).

8. Lakhous' mapping of intercultural routes and dialogues does not fail to explore even the smallest details where ‘North’ and ‘South’ unsurprisingly meet. As Safia/Sofia seeks to escape her husband's attempts to conceive another child, she adopts ‘il trucco femminile del mal di testa’ [women's trick of the headache] (Lakhous, 2010, p. 130). This artifice, also employed by Rosalia, now fallen for her old time sweetheart, to deter her husband Fefè, allows both characters to escape marital obligations; moreover, it functions as an empowerment strategy to gain agency in the relationship. Within Lakhous' text, this trope narrows divisive gaps between the northern and southern shores of the Mediterranean, and identifies common social and behavioural patterns, shared experiences and secrets in the female world.

9. ‘Un'ossessione, una cosa sacra’ (Lakhous, 2010, p. 41).

10. ‘[u]na vecchietta senza denti, sembrava l'incarnazione della strega cattiva delle fiabe’‘una specialista in materia’ (Lakhous, 2010, p. 123).

11. [l]e donne fossero vittime di violenza nei luoghi di guerra come in Afghanistan o in Iraq, nei paesi dove c’è odio razziale come in alcuni stati africani e musulmani, e dove sono diffuse la povertà e l'ignoranza. Ma non in Italia! Insomma, l'Italia è pur sempre un paese europeo, occidentale, che fa parte del G8, eccetera eccetera, o sbaglio? (Lakhous, 2010, p. 123)

12. ‘Il mio velo era come un semaforo davanti al quale la gente deve fermarsi. Quella sosta obbligatoria era il momento ideale per scaricare tensioni, paure, inquietudini, ansia eccetera eccetera. Le persone avevano bisogno di sfogarsi’ (Lakhous, 2010, p. 62).

13. Mbembe (2011) observes that the ‘repeated controversies over the Islamic headscarf or the burkha are saturated with the kind of orientalist imagery that Said denounced’ (p. 94).

14. My emphasis.

15. All citations from the film refer to the English subtitles.

16. ‘L'Italia non è molto dissimile dai paesi arabi e del terzo mondo’ (Lakhous, 2010, p. 82).

17. My emphasis.

18. The notion of honour, ‘l'onore’, begs for further discussion. Can the subaltern have ‘honour’? The terms seem to appear in a chiasmic relationship.

19. ‘non si riferisce a uno che viene dal Marocco. É un'offesa e basta, come negro, frocio, bastardo’(Lakhous, 2010, p. 74).

20. Growing up in the south of Italy, I have been used to hear the word ‘Marocchino’ as an accepted and widely used term to signify a black person – regardless of their national, ethnic background – usually a street vendor to be encountered along the beach under the scorching sun of the summer season. This term is employed still today, and often without any recognition or even realization of its homogenizing and discriminatory nature.

21. ‘U lupu r'a mala cuscienza comu opera piensa’ (Lakhous, 2010, p. 74).