Letters and messages in the world of migration

Abstract

This paper offers an initial reflection on how perceptions in the field of historiography have changed over the last thirty years ‒ and before that among wider audiences‒ regarding the expressive and documentary potential of letters exchanged in various parts of the world between emigrants and their correspondents from the early nineteenth century to the present day. Seeking evidence of this in an ever-expanding literature, I examine types and modes, purposes and linguistic clues in epistolary communication, in particular ‒but not exclusively‒ among “ordinary people”. Solid support for this endeavour now exists in Italy and elsewhere, through the creation of important epistolary archives.