In viaggio contro la propria volontà. Storie di fughe e migrazioni dall'antichità ai giorni nostri

Luisa Sernicola; Gianfrancesco Lusini

doi:10.6093/978-88-6719-317-2

In viaggio contro la propria volontà. Storie di fughe e migrazioni dall'antichità ai giorni nostri

Authors

Luisa Sernicola

University of Naples L'Orientale

Gianfrancesco Lusini

University of Naples L’Orientale

DOI: https://doi.org/10.6093/978-88-6719-317-2

Synopsis

Publisher: UniorPress

Series: Il porto delle idee

ISSN: 2785-4191

Pages: 254

Language: Italian

Abstract: The journey has always accompanied human experience. There is the chosen, desired journey: born from the need to know, to trade, to explore, or simply to change perspective. A going and returning that has nourished literature across all times, giving life to travel writing, a flexible and universal genre.

But there is also the imposed, forced journey, one that does not arise from freedom but from necessity—from fleeing war, persecution, or poverty. It is the journey of those who depart without knowing if they will ever return, stripped of resources and protection, often condemned to silence: because it ends tragically, because the pain is unspeakable, or because there is no language capable of giving voice to such experience. In some cases, however, out of this fracture emerge new forms of expression—attempts to recount loss and exile, up to the extreme testimonies of deportees, where writing itself becomes an act of memory and resistance.

This volume stems from a collective reflection on such “journeys against one’s will,” undertaken by scholars and researchers of the Department of Asian, African and Mediterranean Studies at the University of Naples “L’Orientale,” on the occasion of the 2021 edition of the Futuro Remoto festival, dedicated to the theme of “Transitions.” From that first public moment of reading and discussion grew the idea of bringing together in an anthology texts, translations, and commentaries that give back the voices and stories of those forced to leave.

With this book, our aim is not only to study and transmit different literary traditions, but also to share with readers the memory of those who have experienced migration as a radical rupture of existence. A painful experience that, despite its tragedy, continues to question us and to speak to the present.

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Author Biographies

Luisa Sernicola, University of Naples L'Orientale

Luisa Sernicola is a Research Technologist at the Department of Asian, African and Mediterranean Studies, University of Naples “L’Orientale,” and a member of the Scientific Board of Rassegna di Studi Etiopici and of the Center for African Studies within the same Department. Field director of the Italian Archaeological Expedition at Aksum (Tigray, northern Ethiopia), jointly organized by the University of Naples “L’Orientale” and ISMEO – International Association for Mediterranean and Oriental Studies, she also coordinates the project The Konso Agricultural Landscape: Documenting Traditional Terracing Systems in South-West Ethiopia, funded by the British Museum’s Endangered Material Knowledge Programme. Her research focuses on the study of the evolution of human ecosystems and on long-term dynamics of human–environment interaction, with particular attention to the regions of the northern Horn of Africa. She also explores these phenomena through the use of digital technologies applied to the documentation and interpretation of landscapes and socio-environmental transformations. On these subjects, as well as on the results of her archaeological fieldwork, she has published articles and monographs.

Gianfrancesco Lusini, University of Naples L’Orientale

Gianfrancesco Lusini is Full Professor of Ge‘ez and Amharic Languages and Literatures at the University of Naples L’Orientale, as well as Visiting Professor at Addis Ababa University (since 2014). Former editor of the journal Annali dell’Università di Napoli “L’Orientale”, he is currently editor-in-chief of Rassegna di Studi Etiopici and of the series “Studi Africanistici. Serie Etiopica”. He coordinates the project “National Catalogue of Ethiopian Manuscripts in Italy” and serves as editor of the related series “CaNaMEI Reports”.

A fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (2001–2002, Hamburg University), he also coordinates the “Center for African Studies” within the Department of Asian, African and Mediterranean Studies at the University of Naples L’Orientale. His publications include monographs and articles in the following fields: Ge‘ez philology, Byzantine literature, Ethiopian literature, Amharic language, and the history of Eritrea and Ethiopia from Late Antiquity to the modern age.