3Event: Parole e Immagini di Una Storia “Minore” — L’Emigrazione Siciliana in Tunisia
Date: Thursday 13 March
Time: 18:30
Venue: Tal-Ħursun Farmhouse, UM Msida Campus
The Mediterranean Institute is delighted to announce the forthcoming session on the Mediterranean Institute Seminar. Professor Alfonso Campisi, Vincenzo Consolo Chair of Sicilian Studies at the University of La Manouba, will be reading from ‘Parole e Immagini di Una Storia “Minore”—L’Emigrazione Siciliana in Tunisia (XIX e XX Secolo)’, the new book he has co-authored with Prof. Flaviano Pisanelli (Université Paul Valery Montpellier 3).
The Mediterranean Institute is delighted to announce the forthcoming session on the Mediterranean Institute Seminar. Professor Alfonso Campisi, Vincenzo Consolo Chair of Sicilian Studies at the University of La Manouba, will be reading from ‘Parole e Immagini di Una Storia “Minore”—L’Emigrazione Siciliana in Tunisia (XIX e XX Secolo)’, the new book he has co-authored with Prof. Flaviano Pisanelli (Université Paul Valery Montpellier 3).
Prof. Campisi’s reading will take place in Italian, and will be followed by an interactive discussion with the session participants. The session will be held on Thursday 13 March at 18:30 at the Tal-Ħursun Farmhouse, the Institute’s historic premises on the University of Malta’s Msida Campus.
The Seminar is organised as part of the University of Malta’s ongoing collaboration agreement with the University of La Manouba, one of the major universities in Africa, a pioneering initiative spearheaded by the Mediterranean Institute in conjunction with the Faculty of Arts, Letters and Humanities at La Manouba. The Seminar is funded thanks to the Erasmus+ International Credit Mobility Fund.
‘Parole e Immagini di Una Storia “Minore”—L’Emigrazione Siciliana in Tunisia (XIX e XX Secolo)’ addresses Sicilian emigration to Tunisia between the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries, and has just been published in a bilingual (Italian and French) edition by Editions Arabesques, under the High Patronage of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Migration and Tunisians Abroad and with the support of the Italian Institute of Culture in Tunis— the cultural wing of the Italian Embassy.
This book develops a specific aspect of the history of the Sicilian community in Tunisia— it delves into the myriad reasons that led the Sicilians to leave their native island, the difficulties they encountered in integrating within the host country, their relations with the French and the Tunisians, but also their affinities with other minority communities in Tunisia. These include the Maltese and the Jewish communities of Tunisia, as well as the Italians coming from the southern and northern regions of the Italian peninsula. While the multi-lingual and multi-cultural context of Tunisia between the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries has, on the one hand, facilitated integration into the adopted country, it has also, on the other hand, forced each individual to confront the question of “otherness” in a complex laboratory of languages, cultures and value systems that were based on very different paradigms. At the crossroads of these incessant exchanges, a real permeability across, between and through cultures was being gradually established.
Entry to the Mediterranean Institute Seminar is free and open to the public. Students are particularly encouraged to attend. A Q&A session will follow on from the reading and discussion session. Participants are welcome to stay on for refreshments after the event. Places are limited. Kindly register your attendance by email to the Mediterranean Institute Administrator, Ms Isabelle Abela or the Mediterranean Institute Seminar convenor, Prof. Norbert Bugeja.
