Riscrivere la storia coloniale tramite l’uso dell’oralità: Il caso di Adua (2015)

Abstract

The article examines the use of orality in Igiaba Scego’s novel Adua (2015). Traditionally, the postcolonial literary text is regarded as a ‘translation’ between two languages: the African oral one and the European written one. The aim of the article is to move the attention from orality as a sign of Otherness towards orality as transmission and retelling; this critical shift is necessary as Italian postcolonial literature is often regarded more as a documentary text rather than a literary artefact. By relying on Memory Studies, and specifically on concepts such as Marianne Hirsch’s postmemory, Yael Zerubavel’s countermemory and Astrid Erll’s travelling memory, the analysis shows that Adua is built on the oral communication of memories through dialogues between different characters and other images connected to the act of listening and retelling. Eventually, the dichotomy orality-africanity is dismissed in favour of orality-transmission.