The chapter deals with the maintenance of identity links among individuals belonging to diasporic communities. It investigates this theme by looking at the circulation of letters, which assumed an emotional meaning over time and were perceived by displaced people as emotional objects, capable of bridging those spatial and temporal distances that separated refugees emotionally, socially, and physically. The chapter highlights the consequences of the letters’ circulation by paying attention to the significant experiences of two groups of refugees, both displaced as the result of a forced migration, namely: Germans who fled or were expelled from Silesia after World War II, and Italians repatriated from Libya in 1970.
Re-enacting Community Belonging through Emotions and Memories: German Expellees’ and Italian Repatriates’ Circular Letters
Cecilia Molesini;
2023
Abstract
The chapter deals with the maintenance of identity links among individuals belonging to diasporic communities. It investigates this theme by looking at the circulation of letters, which assumed an emotional meaning over time and were perceived by displaced people as emotional objects, capable of bridging those spatial and temporal distances that separated refugees emotionally, socially, and physically. The chapter highlights the consequences of the letters’ circulation by paying attention to the significant experiences of two groups of refugees, both displaced as the result of a forced migration, namely: Germans who fled or were expelled from Silesia after World War II, and Italians repatriated from Libya in 1970.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
