Uneasy Positionalities: Locational Identity and Elements of Fantastika in the Italian Australian Novel

Most of the very few Italian novelists from Emilio Salgari to Stanislao Nievo who have written on Australian themes have produced narrative works with substantial elements of speculative fantasy. This genre, however, has been underutilized by first- and second-generation writers in the Italian diaspora in Australia, who have privileged narratives of a realist nature with only a small minority producing works of speculative fiction. Antonio Casella's allegorical novel Southfalia and Venero Armanno's The Crying Forest are probably the only “pure” examples of this genre, while spiritual and speculative elements are pivotal to Emilio Gabbrielli's Polenta e Goanna, and Pino Sollazzo's whimsical Il Capolavoro del Secolo and Giovanni Misale's Confessions of a Mafia Leader use speculative elements to challenge Australian radicalized perceptions of Southern Italians. Less pivotal but nevertheless significant elements of fantastika relating to questions of locational identity can be found in narratives by such writers as Rosa Cappiello (Oh Lucky Country), Giovanni Andreoni (Martin Pescatore), Venero Armanno (The Volcano), and Marco Zangari (Latinoaustraliana), while Diana Santamaria (Photographs) and Karen Sparnon (Madonna of the Eucalypts) present elements of fantastika in the context of home country traditions but with Australian connections. This article surveys how elements of fantastika are deployed in Italian Australian narrative to explore themes of place, Italianness, and the migration experience.