Friulani Writers in Canada: Elegy for the Future

Abstract

One day we got lost in Pordenone. On a long drive from Udine to Bassano we took a wrong turn and found ourselves in a newly built area of Pordenone. The streets, sidewalks, green lawns and house designs were all a reproduction of a new subdivision in Toronto. We were lost, but we were back in Canada. It was a disorienting experience. These former immigrants to Canada had returned to Friuli, but had wanted to reconstruct their Toronto neighbourhood. They wanted both worlds: to live in Friuli, but in a Canadian style, and probably with Canadian dollars. What does this tell us about our relationship to landscape and to history?