Professor Merrill: Multicultural Literature in Contemporary Italy 4/6

On Tuesday, April 6th, Professor Merrill was our professor. We were assigned various stories from the compilation of stories in the book Multicultural Literature in Contemporary Italy to read for today's class. The stories all had to do with the migrant culture in modern day Italy. Though some were fictional, all realistically portrayed the immigrant struggle in one way or another. In addition to reading these stories, we were required to pose one discussion question as it related to any story or any issue we came across, and three key terms. Some chose terms as words from a foreign language that they did not know such as "éscamotage," while others chose terms that were relevant to the subject matter, such as "home."

During class, we used various people's discussion questions as starting points. From there, we discussed different things such as what it means to have a homeland. Additionally, we talked about assimilation into a culture that is not your "own." How much can you assimilate? Even if you appear to be assimilated -- can you ever truly be? When can you "cut the cord" that binds you to your "home?" We focused on homelands and home, and what these two things meant to various people. We talked about language barriers, race issues, "third culture children" -- whose parents are of different nationalities, and they themselves are born into a third nation. Where do these people fit in? Tuesday's class was discussion-filled, and really opened my eyes to different perspectives of what it means to be "home."