Masriyyano di Carmine Cartolano : il successo di un autore italiano nella letteratura egiziana contemporanea

Mașriyyānū: yawmiyyāt mușawwir īṭālī by Carmine Cartolano is a collection of anecdotes, in which the author himself is the protagonist. The word mașriyyānū is the result of the union of two words: mișrī and italiano. The author is an Italian photographer, instructor and translator, who has been living in Egypt for thirteen years. His first book published in Egypt and entirely written in Egyptian dialect has achieved resounding success and a second edition of it has been published in November of the same year. Cartolano describes “his” Egypt, as if he were taking pictures of the people that surround him, i.e. mostly Egyptians of the lower classes. In this paper I will try to explain the reasons why an Italian author writing in Egyptian dialect achieved such a success within Egyptian contemporary literature, through a omparative analysis with Arabic mother tongue authors writing in Italian.