Values and feelings in the story of a migrantValues and feelings in the story of a migrant

Abstract

This article aims to provide an insight into the values and sentiments that arise from the pages of the narrations belonging to contemporary migrant literature. In particular, our analysis will focus on a story entitled Prendi quello che vuoi ma lasciami la mia pelle nera (Coge lo que quieras, pero déjame mi piel negra)2 written in Italian by the Senegalese Cheikh Tidiane Gaye. The hard and troubled migrant experience that migrants testify to encourages us to reflect on ourselves and on the Other, and it makes us experience the need of assuming some values as universals for the purpose of enabling the construction of a harmonious community. At the same time, by virtue of knowing the others, we have the chance of awakening our emotional education thanks to the feeling of empathy, thus making it possible to spread the seed of tolerance. Reading these thought-provoking stories helps us keep our minds open to all the several and possible visions of the world that surrounds us, and it stimulates the desire to be receptive to the Otherness. It is precisely this willingness to respect the diversity that contributes to the fact that our society might tend towards a universalistic concept of humankind. With that image in mind, we can enhance the relationships between equals, overcoming the idea of a hegemonic culture or that of a superior race.