Looking back from the centre: Experiences and perspectives of Italian academic living/working abroad

Book chapter, 2014

It seems bizarre to characterize as semiperipheral the homeland of Dante, Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci. Throughout the centuries Italy has enriched the world’s culture in all areas of thought and human knowledge, and the Italian language, culture and way of life now more than ever seem to exert an international fascination with a recognized — if rather stereotyped — identity worldwide. However, Italian culture has also been known for its complexity and contradictions, and as Pirandello in L’Umorismo well realized, it is through these paradoxes that the real nature of things is revealed. Realities, thoughts and lives tend to open themselves to a plurality of interpretations, and Italy is the place where opposites coexist. This may be said also for the situation of Italian academia, caught in a web of contradictions and multi-layered influences, and for the experiences of Italian academics — especially humanities scholars — whose lives are emblematic of the need to juggle contrasts and reconcile seemingly irreconcilable phenomena.