Migration memories and echoes in Italian popular narrative

Abstract

This article analyses the traces migration from Italy during the 19th and 20th Centuries has left in popular short stories from folklore and other literary traditions. The analysis shows how the strategies and the alteration in the use of the different oral genres (fairy tales, anecdote, life story, etc.) sometimes prevent from the artistry of the oral narrator to be perceived. In their way of telling a story, narrators are interweaving the threads of reality, memory, and desire of diverse narrative forms from the traditional folklore heritage. In many cases their narratives respond to traumatic and painful situations both for the individual and the community.

Keywords

• narrazione orale
• emigrazione
• racconto tradizionale
• fiaba