IN OTHER WORDS. THE ITALIAN LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE OF JHUMPA LAHIRI

One of the most interesting aspects of recent Italian literature is the work of writers with a migrant background, who choose Italian as the language in which to write: this is a new perspective for our country and a source of original contributions. For these figures, the confrontation with the Italian literary canon, the exigence to relate to both tradition and contemporary production of Bel Paese reveal themselves to be fundamental. A particularly interesting and peculiar case is represented by the writer Jhumpa Lahiri, London-born with Bengali parents, who lives between the United States and Italy. Taken by a passion for the Italian language during a visit to Florence, she began to write her works in Italian, paying particular attention to the comparison with our literary tradition. The aim is to analyse this relation, to ascertain how Italian literature and culture remain at the core of the experiences of authors from other countries and different cultural backgrounds, and how they are, in turn, revitalised by them.