Emigration, Colonialism, and Lucanian Contadini : Transnational Subjects and Nationalist Expansion in the Work of Rocco Scotellaro

The work of Lucanian writer, poet, and politician Rocco Scotellaro (1923–1953) is often viewed as focusing exclusively on his impoverished home region of Basilicata. However, Scotellaro’s Lucanian contadini frequently move beyond Basilicata and, indeed, the borders of Italy: as emigrants to the Americas, soldiers in territories occupied by Italy, and settlers in Italy’s East African colonies. I examine Scotellaro’s portrayal of Lucanian contadini as transnational subjects embedded in networks of nationalism, colonialism, and migration. Scotellaro’s work showcases how emigration and colonialism bound Lucanian emigrants, soldiers, and colonists to the nation, even as they departed its physical borders. These binds reinforced an imperialist vision of Italian national identity, at the expense of contadini’s identification with other exploited peoples. Nevertheless, I argue that Scotellaro hoped for Southern Italian political identities based on solidarity among the oppressed; in this respect, his work presents affinities with Italian internationalisms preceding and postdating him.