Autoethnographie als Lippenbekenntnis des Experten. Ein Versuch über Salah Methnanis 'Immigrato'

Toward the end of 1989 Italy mutated from a country of emigration to a country of immigration. A transcultural penetration of society begins, in which interest in migration literature also moves into focus. This literary trend, in which the authors write about their liminal experiences and that of foreignness as part of an autoethnography, also ushered in a change in publishing strategy in Italy. Migrant writers suddenly have a market value: the example of Salah Methnani's novel Immigrato will be used to illustrate the interplay between author and language mediator, who usually acts as editor, if not as co-author of the literary work. Methnani's case is exemplary in that, as I will try to show, by co-editing his novel he is deprived of the possibility of self-expression, for he finds himself condemned to be represented and explained by another “voice”.