From Pioneer to Nomad Essays on Italian North American Writing

by Buonomo, Leonardo

• ISBN13: 9781550711660
• ISBN10: 1550711660
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-01-01
• Publisher: Guernica Editions

Summary

In these essays Leonardo Buonomo reconsiders the Italian American experience from the point of view of the close relationship between writing and the processes of identity-construction. The authors analysed in this study -- Luigi Palma di Cesnola, Sister Blandina Segale, Emanuel Carnevali, John Fante, Jerre Mangione and Pasquale Verdicchio -- have found on the written page their true homeland, the place from which to survey critically the North American scene. These authors range from the second half of the nineteenth century to the present and are representative of different social and regional backgrounds, as well as of different facets of hyphenated identity in North America. Reading their works, the author argues, means discovering a significant range of voices and a complex set of cultural issues, that attest to the increasingly rich history and evolution of Italian American literature. This volume also makes available Luigi Palma di Cesnola's important memoir of 1865, Ten Months in Libby Prison.

Author Biography

Leonardo Buonomo teaches American literature at the University of Trieste.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. 6
Foreword	p. 9
Early Narratives by Italian Americans: Luigi Palma di Cesnola's "Ten Months in Libby Prison"	p. 13
"Ten Months in Libby Prison"	p. 23
Monaca o strega?: The Catholic Missionary as Outsider in Sister Blandina Segale's At the End of the Santa Fe Trail	p. 37
A "Lost Soul" in America: Emanuel Carnevali's Autobiography	p. 49
The Italian American Man's Burden: Masculinity in John Fante and Jerry Mangione	p. 61
A Dissenter's Return: John Fante's Novel for the 1980s	p. 74
"In the Name of the Father": The Poetry of Pasquale Verdicchio	p. 85
Notes	p. 95
Works Cited	p. 98
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