(Reception and rereading of an author and his work: Alberto Moravia and Arab writers)

in La rivista di Arablit, a. I, n. 1, giugno 2011, pp. 113-126.

Alberto Moravia is possibly the most widely known and read Italian author in the Arabic countries; at the same time and in despite of this, studies on his production are rare. This essay analyses credits to Moravia as well as considerations on him and his works made since the Sixties by Arab writers in newspapers, periodicals, journals and, in some cases, in autobiographies. In their greatest part, the main subject of the analysed sources has little or nothing to do with Italian literature. Through very short mentions which leave much to the readers’ knowledge and understanding, Moravia is thus listed among the world’s literature main representatives: it can be argued that he has been among the formative authors for different generations of Arab writers. However, these sets of literary references appear quite standardized, while at the same time their Arab authors seem using them to easily get themselves placed into wider groups of literary authority(ies). Differently, other newspaper articles mention swiftly only one aspect of Moravia’s production or one of his works or characters; in some other cases Arab writers talk about their own relationship with Moravia as a self reference to their intellectual curriculum vitae. The final considerations pose a question on what kind of influence the Italian writer has effectively had on the Arab writers.

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