ORCID
https://orcid.org/0009-0005-8918-2262
Keywords
Italy, Immigration, Postcolonial, Haunting, Terraferma, Ghali
Abstract
This thesis examines how two different cultural mediums produced by a prominent Italian director and a popular Italian musical artist engage with themes of immigration and diaspora and their impacts on Italian national identity. The works that I have selected represent a mix of well-known and emergent figures in Italian cultural life and its related discourses around immigration and identity from the last 20 years of Italian history. Focusing on director Emanuele Crialese’s film Terraferma (2011) and rapper and singer Ghali’s songs “Mamma” (2017) and “Bayna” (2022), I analyze how each work frames migration as a metaphorical haunting that engages with broader social and political discourses surrounding immigration in Italy. By performing a comparative case study of migrant hauntings across different medias, I investigate the role of popular cultural productions in shaping and reframing Italy's discourses on immigration, national identity, and inclusion. This thesis centers itself around migration studies, transnationalism, diasporic studies, and postcolonial studies to argue that both Crialese’s and Ghali’s works call for a reimagined sense of an Italian national identity that is more inclusive of and empathetic to diverse peoples.
Completion Date
2025
Semester
Spring
Committee Chair
Kane, Louise
Degree
Master of Arts (M.A.)
College
College of Arts and Humanities
Department
English
Identifier
DP0029310
Document Type
Dissertation/Thesis
Campus Location
Orlando (Main) Campus
STARS Citation
Grohowski, Madeline, "Ghosts Moving from the Margins: Comparing Representations of Migrants in Contemporary Italian Media" (2025). Graduate Thesis and Dissertation post-2024. 142.
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/etd2024/142