Mai lontan dal cuore — manifestazioni e trasmutazioni del rapporto con il paese di origine

The field of Italian Australian studies is both diverse and dynamic. It has embraced topics from outside its “traditional” ambit and has identified new areas of concern to scholars in the field. This volume examines from a post-colonial perspective one of the many and varied cultural practices — the creation of literary texts — established by migrants from Sicily and Calabria who constitute the two major Italian regional groups in Australia. In re-creating aspects of their inhabited past in their new frontier thereby lessening the threat of loss and reconciling their past with their present, these migrants have created a dynamic hybrid culture which is both Italian and Australian. What this volume makes clear is that a distinctive profile, like any great cultural force, is always in a state of transformation and self-interrogation. In this way a culture is never stable, never predictable and never complacent