"We Need New Names" by NoViolet Bulawayo. Paradigms of Migration: The Flight and the Fall

Abstract

Il saggio analizza i paradigmi che definiscono l’esperienza della migrazione nel romanzo di NoViolet Bulawayo (n. 1981, Zimbabwe), Abbiamo bisogno di nomi nuovi (trad. it. 2014), un esempio della nuova letteratura africana, (o ‘afropolitan’?). La migrazione verso gli Stati Uniti, vista dagli occhi di una ragazzina, assume il valore di un volo emancipatorio, soprattutto visti i fallimenti di altri flussi migratori interni (forzati), oltreconfine (Sudafrica), o persino verso l’Inghilterra. Per contrappunto, al volo si alterna il paradigma della caduta. La prima esperienza americana è la neve che cade, in seguito sarà l’inciampare nella lingua inglese a essere paragonato ad una caduta; infine, la caduta fisica e psichica dei migranti illegali nell’invisibilità di lavori indesiderabili e nella ‘bugia’ (Mehta 2016) lascia il posto alla caduta nella psicosi e nel disordine mentale, visto attraverso gli studi di etnopsichiatria di Roberto Beneduce (2015-2016) e un recentissimo racconto sulla migrazione, di Maaza Mengiste, “This is What the Journey Does” (2018).

DOI: 10.17456/SIMPLE-94

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