Intimacy and Italian Migration: Gender and Domestic Lives in a Mobile World (Critical Studies in Italian America) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0823231852 ISBN 13: 9780823231850

Publisher: Fordham University Press, 2010

Synopsis

his provocative collection of essays adds a new dimension to our understanding of nation-building through its examination of the role of intimate cultural processes. First, by exploring the private lives of migrants from Italy through biography, oral history, and ethnography, these essays suggest why and how―across cultures―Italianness has come to be associated with a particular kind of femininity and supposedly distinctive elements of domestic life symbolized by long-held stereotypes of the Italian mother. On a larger scale, while the editors and contributors share with previous works on the Italian diaspora a keen interest in the imagining of nations across national borders, here they refocus our attention to the significance of the domestic, particularly the lives of individual men and women, their families, and the communities they loved―and left behind.

About this title

About the Author:

Loretta Baldass ar is Associate Professor of Anthropology and Sociology at the University of Western Australia.

Donna R. Gabaccia is professor of history at University of Toronto and scholar of international migration, gender and food studies. She has written and edited fifteen books on U.S. immigration, migration in world history, and the history of the worldwide Italian diaspora.

Review:

“From Mazzini the asexual republican leader to Rudolph Valentino, Latin
lover incarnate, and from kitchens to bedrooms, Intimacy and Italian Migration re-questions the ways in which national identities are constructed―from abroad and from the home. This innovative collection of articles compares everything from the Italian mother in Australia, Ireland, and
Germany, to the ‘translocal’ practices of Italian emigrant families. Its strength lies in addressing both stereotypes and experience in the
gendered construction of Italian identity around the world.”

(―Nancy L. Green co-editor, with François Weil of Citizenship and
Those Who Leave)

A multitude of eminently accessible, albeit primarily scholarly, perspectives under the umbrella of the concept of family and the role of women. (―Maria Enrico Borough of Manhattan Community College)

. . . A solid collection of articles that break new ground. In contrast to traditional studies, this volume focuses on the translocal and transnational aspects of migration and places specific emphasis on how factors such as gender, questions of identity and the policies of nation-states affect, and are affected by, the everyday thoughts, decisions and life experiences of individuals. (―Anthropological Forum)

From Italy as nation some 26 million migrant men and women
left since 1870 to create in gendered lives many Italies across
the globe. The paradigmatic essays in this volume analyze how they, with their children and grandchildren, defined translocal and transcultural intimate spheres and redefined processual belongings in highly personal and often contested family arenas. The authors offer fascinating perspectives on the lifetime trajectories of women and men in local-global-national communities. No future research on nations and societies may do less than this path-breaking synthesis edited by the top scholars in the field."

(―Dirk Hoerder Arizona State University)

An invitation to the interpretive community of scholars of the Italian diaspora to engage, once and for all, in a discussion that is analytical to the core . . . A mosaic of impressive intellectual exercises. (―Anthony Tamburri Queens College)

About this edition

• Publisher: Fordham University Press
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0823231852
• ISBN 13: 9780823231850
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 245
• Editor: Baldassar Loretta, Gabaccia Donna R.