April 27, 2026

Post-Colonialisms and Global Citizenship

António Sousa Ribeiro e Margarida Calafate Ribeiro

The research focuses on the Italian postcolonial condition in the framework of the theoretical-methodological contribution of the cultural studies. What is the meaning of "postcolonial" in Italy? Is it an instrument that may contribute to a reading of our times? What is the shape of this condition within national and transnational Italian history? To answer these questions, it is essential to approach the role of migrant and postcolonial writers, who share unprecedented readings of marginalized pages in national history, such as colonialism. However, the word "colony" within this specific context also sheds light on another memory, a most relevant one, albeit always neglected by official narrative: the mass migrations and the "colonies" Italians have founded throughout the world, experiencing a condition of subalternity. Moreover, since antiquity, in the peninsula, Greeks, Albanians, and other groups have founded "colonies" in the original sense of the word, whose memory has been preserved until today, being recognized by law as linguistic minorities. Based on extensive bibliographic research, I have constructed three guiding concepts: diaspora, dispatrio, and memory. The function of these concepts is to provide support to the journey towards a postcolonial reading of the literary work of Carmine Abate: a writer born in an "arbëreshë" community in Calabria, the ground of the Albanian diaspora in the 15th century, until today a land of emigration and, currently, the first destination of some of the migration flows across the Mediterranean.

Key words: Carmine Abate; diaspora; dispatrio; memory; post-colonialism (Italy)