ABSTRACT
This chapter examines a selection of translingual writers who work in a variety of Italian contexts. I propose three categories of such authors, according to their unique relationship with the Italian language: writers who have a postcolonial relationship with Italy and Italian; writers who, despite having no historical link with Italy, write in Italian for either sentimental reasons or because they have migrated to Italy; and writers who are Italian by birth, but who write texts in languages other than their mother tongue. Central to my discussion of these translingual authors is the centuries-long debate surrounding the linguistic norms of Italian, known as the questione della lingua. My study reformulates and reimagines important aspects of this questione by widening the inclusivity of the term “Italian,” and paying overdue attention to issues of translingualism, and the ways in which they shape identity politics.
