Subverting Italianità: The Comic Voice of Laila Wadia

Abstract

Since antiquity, tradition has held that women and humor don’t go together. Behind this notion lies the intersection of social power and humor, and women’s roles in both. The writings of Italian-Indian writer Laila Wadia confront these notions, specifically targeting the mechanism of stereotyping and the role of humor in cultural inclusion and exclusion. In a comic key, Wadia questions the cherished cultural concept of italianità: Who really has it, and of what does it actually consist? Can it be acquired by an outsider? And most importantly, what does it mean to have it? Structured as a highly ironic ersatz diary, Come diventare italiani in 24 ore positions the protagonist, Laila, as writing from outside Italian society in order to examine how the presence of otherness (as embodied in the migrant) challenges the traditional concept of italianità. By ironizing in equal measure the misguided stereotypes that Italians have of foreigners as well as the misguided stereotypes that foreigners have of Italians, Wadia exposes how the discourses of identity construction and social exclusion and inclusion are appropriated into economies of power, which humor can serve or challenge.