Course for Autumn 2023: CORE094 Migrations through languages and literatures

The course will offer an introductory path through some nuclear themes related to the complex relationships between territorial mobility and languages, on the one hand, and literary production, on the other hand, in the present and in the recent past. The notion of migration is understood here in a relatively broad sense, encompassing various facets of the human being's relationship to the space s/he traverses and inhabits. These include voluntary or, more often, socially induced displacements, such as the current migratory phenomena directed towards Europe or from Europe towards overseas destinations, etc.; forced displacement induced by climate change or, as we observe every day, by political conflict, and other related phenomena. As they move through space, human beings bring with them linguistic repertoires and narrative potential and, in their relationship with other places and people, reconfigure one and the other, at the same time modifying the very space they traverse.

Framed within the European perspective of plurilingual education, the course will be organised in two thematic blocks, one specifically devoted to the languages of/in migration, the other one focusing on the relationship between migration and literature. In both cases, particular attention will be paid to the complexity of identity constructions, multilingualism and multiculturalism as intrinsic features of present day Europe. In this sense, the course allows for the development of transversal skills, which transcend disciplinary boundaries and concern crucial aspects of existence such as languages and the ability to narrate.

Methodologically rooted in the new research trend of Migration Studies (in particular, Sociolinguistics of Migration and Migrant Literature), the course is however not addressed to specialists in the Humanities, but to the broader student audience variously interested in a multifaceted reading of the current world. Through thematic lectures by different lecturers, the course will address a wide range of topics, such as territorial multilingualism and individual plurilingualism; linguistic landscapes; migrant languages; migrant literatures; literature and exile; autobiographical narrative and linguistic autobiography etc. The lectures will offer students new visual perspectives, which will enable them to enrich their ability to read reality by employing new keys of interpretation.