| Many studies on contemporary travel writing---influenced by James Clifford's idea of a cultural and relativistic "poetics of displacement"---have identified a more critical and less unilateral conscience than the traditional one. Few such studies are Italian, for Italian critics tend to examine the hybrid nature of the genre. Our aim is to study some Italian "reportages" in order not to analyse all formal features, but to verify how the combination of descriptive and reflexive elements enables a cultural criticism to be made.Ambiguity remains a central feature: even if the traveller-writers develop a critical conscience, they cannot entirely escape from a traditional unilateral perspective. For instance, although Carlo Levi wants to be broadminded, he systematically searches countries in which "the other" resembles the typical "South-Italian". Pier Paolo Pasolini inserts Levi's thoughts on the South into a larger discourse about the Third World. Although Pasolini wants to engage a dialogue with "the other", his scripts demonstrate that it is hard to abandon all individual expectations.As for Goffredo Parise, driven by his senses and influenced by the reading of Darwin, cultures are continually changing. In this regard, a respectful attitude towards one another would be preferable. The travels of Alberto Arbasino, on the contrary, are an excuse for spouting a cynical cultural criticism which is already known before the departure and in which nothing remains undiscussed. Giorgio Manganelii wants to emphasize that it is not necessary to understand everything. His unconventional use of the concept of "state" and the symbolic loss of his luggage are significant. Differently, Gianni Celati's travels in Africa confirm his belief that Westerners should not taken for granted the everyday life. On the other side, Celati abandons a traditional viewpoint by emphasizing that he is a tourist subjected to "the other's" gaze. Geographic coordinates no longer seem to matter for Fabrizia Ramondino she stresses that one should always take into consideration the "emarginated other" abroad and at home.One thus notices that for both the "critical relativistic" approach, which rejects all certainties, and the "critical humanistic" one, centered on the unequal power relations between people in general, getting to know the visited country is no longer the most important aim. |
