Siciliani e tedeschi. Confronto interculturale e nomi letterari

Abstract

In recent years, Italy (and in particular, Florence, Rome and Venice) has been seen by German writers as a fascinating source of inspiration for their works. As for Southern Italy, Naples has been extensively studied, while Sicily has been largely ignored, though with several important exceptions, such as the novels by Gert Hofmann and martin Schlobies, in which the behaviour of the islanders is described as being affected by diabolic inclinations leading to bloody events. On the other hand, Sicily is also considered as a country conducive to healing, for example in the writings of Hanns-Josef Ortheil. For modern Sicilian authors, German civilization is a mainly unknown reality, and vice versa. Leonardo Sciascia portrays a German woman who disregards the moral taboos of the island. Sicilian immigrants in German speaking countries ironize on the xenophobìa they encounter in the host country but also on their own ancestral patterns of behaviour. Two 2016 novels, one by Kirsten Barba (Die Gesichte der Frau Ferrucci), the other by Daniel Speck (Bella Germania) present without prejudices Sicilian society in all its complexity, whose mysteries are only partly comprehensible for foreigners. In all these texts, the narrative content is mirrored by literary names.