0000000000711749
AUTHOR
Anna De Fina
Learning How to Tell, Learning How to Ask: Reciprocity and Storytelling as a Community Process
AbstractIn this article, we discuss the discursive processes that surround storytelling of traumatic experiences in the case of minor asylum seekers involved in the recent migration flow to Italian ports. We argue that in order to understand not only how traumatic experiences are told but also how they are overcome, it is necessary to focus on the reciprocal relationships and impact of the members of the communities in which migrants are received. Such approach shifts the focus from the content of stories toward the protagonists of their tellings and from asylum seekers as ‘subjects’ to asylum seekers as members of communities to which they and others contribute. The article is based on nar…
Odysseus the traveler: Appropriation of a chronotope in a community of practice
Abstract In this article we analyze the role of chronotopes in the formation and negotiation of identities. In particular, we consider the case of a superdiverse community of practice formed by minors asylum seekers and teachers in a school of Italian in Sicily, Italy. In our analysis we stress the role of reciprocity on the ways in which the chronotopic figure of Odysseus is reinterpreted and appropriated by members of this community. We look at how through a process of mutual engagement the indexical values associated with the figure of Odysseus are recontextualized by both teachers and students in light of their present experiences. Data for the article come from interviews, narratives a…