Leaving Little Italy: Essaying Italian American Culture

by Gardaphe, Fred L.

• ISBN13: 9780791459188
• ISBN10: 0791459187
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-01-01
• Publisher: State Univ of New York Pr

Summary

Leaving Little Italy explores the various forces that have shaped and continue to mold Italian American culture. Early chapters offer a historical survey of major developments in Italian American culture, from the early mass immigration period to the present day, situating these developments within the larger framework of American culture as a whole. Subsequent chapters examine particular works of Italian American literature and film from a variety of perspectives, including literary history, gender, social class, autobiography, and race. Paying particular attention to how the individual artist's personality has intersected with community in the shaping of Italian American culture, the book reveals how and why Italian America was invented and why Little Italys must ultimately disappear. Book jacket.

Author Biography

Fred L. Gardaphe directs the American and Italian/American Studies Programs at Stony Brook University, State University of New York

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
Introduction	xi
Part I. A Historical Survey
The Southern Answer: Making Little Italys	3	(10)
Inventing Italian America	13	(24)
Mythologies of Italian America: From Little Italys to Suburbs	37	(16)
Part II. Thematic Essays
Left Out: Three Italian American Writers of the 1930s	53	(14)
The Consequences of Class in Italian American Culture	67	(16)
Variations of Italian American Women's Autobiography	83	(18)
Criticism as Autobiography	101	(22)
We Weren't Always White: Race and Ethnicity in Italian American Literature	123	(14)
Linguine and Lust: Notes on Food and Sex in Italian American Culture	137	(14)
Conclusion: Leaving Little Italy: Legacies Real and Imagined	151	(12)
Notes	163	(4)
Works Cited	167	(18)
Index	185