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.

writing for publication

research writing

brain drain

English for Specific Purposes

Author

Raffaella Negretti

K. Bennett (Ed.), The Semi-Periphery of Academic Writing: discourses, communities and practices

148-162
978-1-349-46870-6 (ISBN)

Areas of Advance

Information and Communication Technology

Subject Categories

General Language Studies and Linguistics

Specific Languages

Learning and teaching

Pedagogical work

DOI

10.1057/9781137351197

ISBN

978-1-349-46870-6

More information

Created

10/10/2017