LETTERS AND MESSAGES IN THE WORLD OF MIGRATION

This paper offers an initial reflection on how per-ceptions 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 va-rious parts of the world between emigrants and their correspondents from the early nineteenth cen-tury to the present day. Seeking evidence of this in an ever-expanding literature, I examine types and modes, purposes and linguistic dues in epistolary communication, in particular -but not exclusively -among << ordinary people >>. Solid support for this en-deavour now exists in Italy and elsewhere, through the creation of important epistolary archives.