Stereotypes of "primitivism" and "modernity" in immigrant-related discourse in the Italian media

Abstract

This chapter explores the functions of primitivism in today's news, examining the occurrences of the ‘immigrant/foreigner = primitive’ paradigm in a small corpus of written and oral texts from the media - including news reports, articles and even Italian political talk shows about immigration - and showing how Western myths of primitivism are represented linguistically. The study, firmly anchored in postcolonial theories, reveals how popular and journalistic discourse on the immigrant is forged on the most diverse and often contradictory Western myths of the primitive - from that of the ‘good savage’ in harmony with nature, to that of the ‘beastly and uncivilised savage’, to that of the ‘irrational and/or sensual savage’, all of which represent the other as subaltern. The analysis documents not only how the ‘myth’ of primitivism is embodied in the representations of immigration that emerge from both overtly racialised and supposedly ‘liberal’ discourses, but also the ways in which such representations contribute to re-presenting and institutionalising the stereotypical prejudices of readers whose daily diet of ‘news’ fuels fears of the ‘other’, rather than offering positive narratives of individuals from different civilisations, which could provide the potential for the creation of renewed and improved cultural paradigms to counter ancient and anachronistic myths.