Conflitti, negoziazioni e ambivalenze nella letteratura norvegese della postmigrazione. Critiche e riscritture della norvegesità

Some of the main goals of the present study are to understand what are the main problems that the “postmigrant generation” (descendants of immigrants, “mixed” people, and transnational adoptees) are forced to face in contemporary Norwegian society, how the authors present these challenges in diverse ways, and what strategies are put in place to critique and counter oppressive mechanisms. This means that it is also important to investigate the ways in which these works criticize a widespread understanding of the concept of Norwegianness, which a priori excludes all those who, for aesthetic, cultural, linguistic, and religious reasons, cannot be associated with a – false – idea of national homogeneity and Nordic purity. At the same time, it is intended to bring into focus all those cultural and linguistic practices and hybridisms that help to highlight how the old hegemonic paradigms are no longer able to represent contemporary Norway, whose national identity is constantly renegotiated in relation to migratory phenomena, which have triggered processes of transculturalization and transnationalization. In recent years, one of the most innovative and stimulating notions aimed at understanding this new era of migrations and hybridisms, which redefine societies from their foundations, is that of postmigration, which, among other things, proposes to consider the entire society as postmigrant, since migration has now greatly influenced not only the social fabric but also the identity status of European countries. One of the main goals of the postmigrant perspective is to overcome the dichotomies that contrast the figure of the migrant with that of the non-migrant, the idea of a homogeneous “us” with a “them” as a deviation from the norm, the majority population with minorities. This work seeks to combine the theoretical-methodological framework of postmigration with that of intersectionality. Intersectionality presupposes that the social, biological, and cultural categories of class, gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, age, disability, nationality, etc., are inseparable from each other if one wants to fully understand the identity of an individual or group of individuals and, above all, how systemic injustices and inequalities act simultaneously on multiple levels that overlap and intersect with each other. Chapter 1 is divided into three parts and is devoted to A) the theory, method and research objectives, B) the presentation of the postmigrant condition in Norway, and C) the description of postmigration literature – of which a new conceptualization is proposed based on the definition of postmigrant society – and the introduction of the works chosen for analysis: 1) Pakkis (Paki) by Khalid Hussain (1986); 2) Alle utlendinger har lukka gardiner (All Foreigners Have Their Curtains Closed) by Maria Navarro Skaranger (2015); 3) Tante Ulrikkes vei (Tante Ulrikkes Street) and 4) Gul bok (Yellow Book) by Zeshan Shakar (2017; 2020); 5) Kvinner som hater menn (Women Who Hate Men) by Sumaya Jirde Ali (2017); 6) La oss aldri glemme hvor godt det kan være å leve (Let Us Never Forget How Good It Can Be to Live) by Sarah Zahid (2018); 7) Hør her'a! (Listen Up!) by Gulraiz Sharif (2020); 8) Eg snakkar om det heile tida (I Talk About It All the Time); and 9) De må føde oss eller pule oss for å elske oss (They Must Birth Us or Fuck Us to Love Us) by Camara Lundestad Joof (2018; 2022); 10) Kvit, norsk mann (White, Norwegian Man) by Brynjulf Jung Tjønn (2022); 11) Da vi var yngre (When we were younger) by Oliver Lovrenski (2023). Chapter 2 focuses on the comparative analysis of two texts to show how themes and style change, from migration to postmigration literature, regarding the dynamism of migration-related social transformations in Norway. Chapter 3 focuses on the linguistic analysis of the only four novels written so far in the Norwegian multiethnolect (Kebabnorsk), while Chapter 4 aims to understand what translation strategies have been employed to render two of these novels in Italian. Chapter 5 discusses the multiethnic satellite towns on the outskirts of Oslo and how they are the focus of stigmatizing discourses of various kinds. Chapter 6 investigates the correlation between social class and migration background for descendants of immigrants, with a focus on processes of social mobility. Chapter 7 deals with Muslim Norwegians, Islamophobia and the counter-narratives deployed to fight stereotypes and as well as define their space within society. In Chapter 8, focusing on racialization and whiteness, an attempt is made to shed light on the processes of marginalization related to racial categorizations and the life experience of non-white people in Norway. In the conclusions, we reflect on how what has been said in the various chapters connects to the concept of Norwegianness, and in particular to the parameters of inclusion and exclusion from it in contemporary Norway. Norwegian society appears to be an arena in which conflicts, ambivalences, and negotiations occur. These can be traced back to the processes of identity and national redefinition that have been triggered by and related to migration phenomena. Certainly, the selected authors, through their works, contribute to criticizing and at the same time redrawing the boundaries of Norwegianness.