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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
Biographical narratives of three Italian men who each lived for some years in Australia: Massimo Montagnana (residing in Australia 1940-1948); Omero Schiassi (who lived in Australia from 1924 to his death in 1956); and Francesco Fantin (who also lived in Australia from 1924 until his death in 1942, in Loveday 14D internment camp).
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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'You're on the List!' Writing the Australian Italian Experience of War-Time Internment
2008
single work
criticism
— Appears in: FULGOR , November vol. 3 no. 3 2008; The Bilingual Cockatoo : Writing Italian Australian Lives 2014; (p. 30-67) This paper compares the discursive and experiential valence of the two fullest autobiographical accounts of internment written by Australian Italians, that by Claudio Alcorso in The Wind You Say (1993) and that by Peter Dalseno (1994), both of whom were in Loveday from 1942 to 1944 (while Alcorso had been in Hay from June 1940). Beyond the shock of unmerited deprivation of liberty and the equally unmerited stigma of being defined as "enemy aliens", the experience of, and discourse on, internment of the two turns out very different, despite the relative closeness in age when detained. For Alcorso, a patrician from Rome, the internment experience is one of opening up to and enamourment with the world and with life - the Australian outback, working-class and other Australian Italians, human creativity - and the worst crisis comes with release. For Dalseno's alter ego, Peter Delano, raised in the Ingham area, the initial shock is worst, denying him his hard won Australian identity component, and internment represents an intensification of the sordidness of life outside, while release brings with it reacceptance into the wider Australian society. This study thus shows the diversity of ways in which a common history is experienced and discursively conveyed by individuals. [Author's abstract]
-
'You're on the List!' Writing the Australian Italian Experience of War-Time Internment
2008
single work
criticism
— Appears in: FULGOR , November vol. 3 no. 3 2008; The Bilingual Cockatoo : Writing Italian Australian Lives 2014; (p. 30-67) This paper compares the discursive and experiential valence of the two fullest autobiographical accounts of internment written by Australian Italians, that by Claudio Alcorso in The Wind You Say (1993) and that by Peter Dalseno (1994), both of whom were in Loveday from 1942 to 1944 (while Alcorso had been in Hay from June 1940). Beyond the shock of unmerited deprivation of liberty and the equally unmerited stigma of being defined as "enemy aliens", the experience of, and discourse on, internment of the two turns out very different, despite the relative closeness in age when detained. For Alcorso, a patrician from Rome, the internment experience is one of opening up to and enamourment with the world and with life - the Australian outback, working-class and other Australian Italians, human creativity - and the worst crisis comes with release. For Dalseno's alter ego, Peter Delano, raised in the Ingham area, the initial shock is worst, denying him his hard won Australian identity component, and internment represents an intensification of the sordidness of life outside, while release brings with it reacceptance into the wider Australian society. This study thus shows the diversity of ways in which a common history is experienced and discursively conveyed by individuals. [Author's abstract]
Last amended 4 Dec 2014 12:02:48
