“Un nuovo ed entusiasmante modello sulla scena dell’arte contemporanea: Riso, Museo d’Arte Contemporanea della Sicilia” [ There’s a new and thrilling model on Sicily’s contemporary art scene: Riso, Museo d’Arte Contemporanea della Sicilia]

“Un nuovo ed entusiasmante modello sulla scena dell’arte contemporanea: Riso, Museo d’Arte Contemporanea della Sicilia” [ There’s a new and thrilling model on Sicily’s contemporary art scene: Riso, Museo d’Arte Contemporanea della Sicilia]

Se i marciapiedi di questa strada potessero parlare’: Space and Identity in Three Italian American Autobiographies

Early Representations of Organized Crime and Issues of Identity in the Italian American Press (1890 to 1910)

Beginning from the early days of mass immigration (1890s), Italian immigrants were increasingly depicted in association with crime, especially organized crime, in the mainstream press. Fuelled by nativist views of immigrants as a threat to American safety, character, and morality, these first images of the newcomers became increasingly popular as the new century progressed, crystallizing in the minds of Americans and becoming the predominant representations of Italian immigrants. The response of the newly formed Italian communities can be found in the Italian-American press, which took upon itself the task of providing alternative images with which the burgeoning Italian community could ide…

Bones and blood: family ties and the experience of immigration in Anzia Yezierska's “Bread givers” and Fae Myenne Ng's “Bone”

“Insider Knowledge Versus Outsider Perspective in Early Italian American and African American Detective Stories”

Doctorow, E. L. (1931-2015)

E. L. Doctorow was one of the most important novelists of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. This essay outlines his literary career, highlighting his significant works, the historical context in which he wrote and was first read and the enduring significance of his writing.

Yezierska, Anzia (1880-1970)

Anzia Yezierska è un' ebrea Polacca immigrata negli Stati Uniti. Nei primi anni '20, fu una delle prime scrittrici a portare storie di donne ebree immigrate ad un pubblico americano mainstream. Questo saggio traccia le tappe della carriera e della produzione letteraria dell'autrice con particolare attenzione al contesto storico in cui scrisse e fu ricevuta dal pubblico a lei contemporaneo e all'importanza della sua scrittura per le generazioni successive. Anzia Yezierska was a Jewish immigrant from Poland. In the early 1920s, she was the first writer to bring stories of Jewish immigrant women to a mainstream audience. This essay outlines her literary career, highlighting her significant wor…

The Assassination of Lieutenant Joe Petrosino: A Contested Symbol in the Mainstream and Italian-American Press in the Early 20th Century

Recently, scholars have looked at the ethnic press through a social constructionist lens, examining the process through which immigrants developed a sense of identity and the role of print culture in forming “imagined communities” (Anderson). Here, I analyze the coverage of the 1909 assassination of police Lieutenant Petrosino in both mainstream and Italian-American press and popular culture. This shocking event ignited a debate over the nature and origin of the Mafia and the dangerousness of the Italian community, a debate involving discourses of racial difference, immigration restriction, and the capability of Italians to assimilate. This debate became an important arena in which Italian …

Joe Petrosino, da capo della Squad a eroe della narrativa popolare italoamericana

Bread Givers, Anzia Yezierska (1925)

This essay analyzes Anzia Yezierska's novel "Bread Givers" (1925) its critical reception from presentation to the present day, the historical context of its production and reception and its enduring significance.

Giuseppina Terranova and Other Gruesome Stories: Cases of Female Italian-American murderers in the press from the 1890s to the 1910s

Immigrant women during the period of mass migration received little public attention. However, when some of them became protagonists in sensational murder cases, they burst into the public sphere. Analyzing the representation of Josephine Terranova and other female Italian-American murderers in both the yellow press and the Italian-American press shows how some of these invisible women were able to assert themselves in the public sphere and achieve a degree of agency despite their tragic circumstances. These women, represented as degenerate and genetically inferior in the early coverage of their cases and trials, were, over time, essentially rehabilitated in the press as “proper” American s…

O’Hara, John (1905-1970)

John O'Hara was an important novelist of the mid-twentieth century. This essay outlines his literary career, highlighting his significant works, the historical context in which he wrote and was first read and the enduring significance of his writing.

La vera bellezza è quella analitica Edgar Allan Poe [All Real Beauty is Analytical Edgar Allan Poe]

""Don't be sad...You will get smart in America,' Context and Startegies of Resistance in Rosa: the Life of an Italian Immigrant as-told-to Marie Hall Ets."

In Cold Blood, Truman Cpote (1966)

This essay analyzes Truman Capote's novel "In Cold Blood" (1966) its critical reception from presentation to the present day, the historical context of its production and reception and its enduring significance.

The Wapshot Chronicle, John Cheever (1957)

This essay analyzes John Cheever's's novel "The Wapshot Chronicle" (1957) its critical reception from presentation to the present day,the historical context of its production and reception and its enduring significance.

“La feccia dell’Europa del Sud”. Razza e costruzione dell’identità etnica nella stampa italiana di New York (1890-1910)

A partire dai primi anni di immigrazione di massa (1890), gli immigrati italiani furono sempre raffigurati nella stampa mainstream in associazione con la criminalità, in particolare la criminalità organizzata,. Le prime immagini dei nuovi arrivati visti come una minaccia per la sicurezza e la moralità americana, ​​col progredire del nuovo secolo, si diffusero sempre di più cristallizzandosi nella mente degli americani e finendo per diventare le rappresentazioni predominanti degli immigrati italiani. La risposta delle comunità italiane di nuova formazione si trova sulla stampa italo-americana, che fornì immagini alternative con cui la comunità italiana potesse identificarsi e prospettive alt…

"If the Sidewalks of These Street Could Talk." Reinventing Italian-American Ethnicity : The Representation and Construction of Ethnic Identity in Italian-American Literature

“Letters to the Editor and the Construction of the Jewish-American Community in Early 20th Century New York”

The “Bintel Brief” was a part of the Jewish Daily Forward, a Yiddish-language daily newspaper founded in 1897 and run by Abraham Cahan. The “Bintel Brief” (literally, “a bundle of letters”) was a forum where people could write for advice, to express an opinion, or simply to tell their (often tragic) experiences. The Editor would respond, offering counsel, practical advice, sympathy, etc. Devoted to workers rights, trade unionism, and democratic socialism, The “Bintel Brief” provided practical advice and a sympathetic ear, but also an ideological framework for the experiences and problems of immigrants, giving these private experiences a public significance and meaning by inscribing them in …

La Sicilia, un’altra realtà a cui appigliarsi, nella ricerca di network efficaci. Sicily, another reality to cling to in the quest for effective networks

La Sicilia, un’altra realtà a cui appigliarsi, nella ricerca di network efficaci [“Sicily, another reality to cling to in the quest for effective networks”]

“Curious Victories”: The Famous Murder Case of Maria Barbella and Italian-American Women in the Press Between the 1890s and 1910s

Immigrant women during the period of mass migration received little public attention. However, when some of them became protagonists in sensational murder cases, they burst into the public sphere. Analyzing the representation of Maria Barbella's trial in the mainstream, yellow and the Italian-American press shows how some of these invisible women were able to assert themselves in the public sphere and achieve a degree of agency despite their tragic circumstances. These women, represented as degenerate and genetically inferior in the early coverage of their cases and trials, were, over time, essentially rehabilitated in the press as “proper” American subjects as a result of the convergence o…

“Italian American Crime Fiction from the 1890s to the 1930s.”

The Role of Early Textual Production in the Development of a Canon of Italian American Literature

Having missed out on many of the developments spurred by the ethnic revival of the 1960s, Italian American literary studies only began in the late 1980s and did not take off as a movement until the late 1990s. However, the predominant focus of this work has been on authors of the 1930s and 1940s such as John Fante, Pietro Di Donato, Jerre Mangione and those who came after, almost completely leaving out the vast literary output in Italian from the 1880s to the 1920s. Especially important, in my view, is the fiction which was serialized in newspapers and other periodicals of the day which not only illuminates the early experiences of immigrants in America and the specific dynamics at work wit…