From the Margin: Writings in Italian Americana - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1557531528 ISBN 13: 9781557531520

Publisher: Purdue University Press, 1990

Synopsis

Contributions of Italian Americans are indeed represented in all aspects of society. Filmmakers and authors manifest their awareness of italianitá, their Italian American identity. Numerous recent studies call for a different, multicultural perspective by which American literature and culture should be viewed. From the Margin addresses that need and explores the notion of italianitá in film and literature, both through creative works and scholarly essays. This anthology, hailed as a significant contribution to American ethnic studies, features the short stories, poems, and plays of more than thirty Italian American artists. Drawing on their individual and collective backgrounds and experience, these writers convey another vision of American life. A section of critical essays by established scholars in the field, with topics ranging from specific works and authors to broad literary movements and film studies, analyzes the Italian American phenomenon and the role of ethnicity in literature. The extensive bibliography treats creative works, critical essays, and films dealing with the Italian American experience and promises to be an invaluable research tool.

About this title

About the Author

Anthony Julian Tamburri is Dean of the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute of Queens College/CUNY and Professor of Italian & Italian/American Studies. He has written Of "Saltimbanchi" and "Incendiari": Aldo Palazzeschi and Avant-Gardism in Italy (1990); To Hyphenate or not to Hyphenate: the Italian/American Writer: Or, An "Other" American? (1991); Per una lettura retrospettiva. Prose giovanili di Aldo Palazzeschi (1994); A Reconsideration of Aldo Palazzeschi's Poetry (1905-1974): Revisiting the "Saltimbanco" (1998); A Semiotic of Ethnicity: In (Re)cognition of the Italian/American Writer (1998); and A Semiotic of Re-reading: Italo Calvino's "Snow Job" (1999). His essays and articles on Italian literature and art, Italian/American studies, and popular culture have appeared in numerous journals, including L'Asino d'oro, Italica, Canadian Journal of Italian Studies, Differentia, review of italian thought, Prairie Winds, Semiotic Spectrum, Italian Culture, Campi immaginabili, The American Journal of Semiotics, The Italian Journal, Ipotesi 80, L'ANELLO che non tiene, Italiana, Gradiva, and Segni e comprensione. Among his editorial work, with Paolo A. Giordano and Fred L. Gardaphé, he is co-contributing editor of the volume From The Margin: Writings in Italian Americana (1991; revised edition, 2000) and co-founder of Bordighera Press, publisher of the semi-annual, Voices in Italian Americana, a literary and cultural review, the annual, Italiana, and two book series, VIA FOLIOS and CROSSINGS, as well as THE BORDIGHERA POETRY PRIZE. He is, with Ben Lawton, co-founder of the Purdue Conference on Romance Languages, Literatures & Film and co-editor of its Romance Languages Annual. His other edited volumes and special issues include, with Ron Scapp. Differentia, Review of Italian Thought (1994); with P. A. Giordano, he is a contributing co-editor of a special issue of Canadian Journal of Italian Studies (1996) and a book of essays, Beyond the Margin: Readings in Italian Americana (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1998). His forthcoming work includes: La semiotica della ri-lettura: Guido Gozzano, Aldo Palazzeschi, e Italo Calvino; Italian/American Briefs: A Semiotic Reading of Short Films & Videos (Purdue UP); and the co-edited volume with Anna Camaiti Hostert, to appear in both English and Italian, Screening Ethnicity: Cinematographic Representations of Italian Americans in the U.S. L'etnia celluloide: la rappresentazione degli italoamericani nel cinema statunitense [Luca Sossella Editore, 2001]. Paolo Giordano PAOLO GIORDANO: received his Ph.D. in Italian Studies with a minor in Art History from Indian University, and his MA in Italian from Middlebury College. He is currently Chair of the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at Loyola University Chicago (1998 - present). He has served as Director and Academic Dean of the Loyola University Rome Campus and as Director of the Master Program in Liberal Studies. Giordano has also held teaching appointments at the Scuola Italiana of Middlebury College. His research interests are in Italian-American Studies, the Italian Renaissance, and 20th-century Italian Literature. His essays and articles on Italian literature and art, Italian-American studies, have appeared in Italian and American journals. The most significant publications he has been associated with are From the Margin: Writings in Italian Americana, edited with Anthony Tamburri and Fred Gardaphé and recently re-released as a second and revised edition; Beyond the Margin (Fairleigh Dickinson UP, 1998) also with A. Tamburri. He is co-founder of Bordighera Press, publisher of the semi-annual, Voices in Italian Americana (co-editor), the annual, Italiana (co-editor), and two book series, VIA FOLIOS and CROSSINGS, as well as the Bordighera Poetry Prize. He also serves as Associate Editor of Italica, the publication of the American Assocaition of Teachers of Italian. He is currently working on an essay on Gabriello Chiabrera for the Dictionary of Literary Biographies.

Review

“I see this book as a major contribution not only in the field of American literature, but also to scholarship in the sociology of literature. It makes a significant contribution to American ethnic studies and, in general, to American Studies . . . . It deals with important scholarly issues in a lively way and brings a wealth of significant new works, both creative and analytical, to bear on the subject.”

(Francis X. Femminella, SUNY/Albany)

“Filled with charming surprises, engaging humor and dramatic revelation, this cornucopia of Italian American writing is a feast that proves the ripening of a generation into a new and sophisticated ethnic voice. This is an essential and enjoyable work for what may be the decade of literary adversity.”

(Josephine Gattuso Hendin, New York University)

“This anthology is designed to appeal to both popular and scholarly audiences . . . . Both nostalgia and scholarship are appealed to, and so are the taste buds: even the criticism refers unceasingly to pastry, a sip of wine, the scent of garlic on one’s fingers. Buon Appetito!”

Library Journal

“From the Margin makes a real contribution to the exploration of ethnic diversity in America and to the study of the cultural sociology of contemporary American society. It is a volume destined to place itself at the center of the landscape of works on Italian Americana.”

The Harvard Book Review

“Here is a mother lode of gold, till now unexplored. The richness of Italian American writings, seldom recognized, is at last given its due.”

(Studs Terkel)

“From the Margin allows the reader to skip back through time and savor the smells, sights and sounds of an Italian American childhood. As one walks down the street with Nonna or sits quietly listening to the grownups as they party into the night . . . one feels a sense of sadness that so many special facets of Italianica have been polished during the process of Americanization. From the Margin is must reading for the generation of Italian Americans who are the bridge between the two cultures, to read and enjoy the memories. It is also an important reference for their children, and their children’s children, to learn and share a unique cultural experience.”

(Geraldine A. Ferraro)

“A marvelous cornucopia of original plays, poems, and prose by and about Italian Americans.”

(Susan Gubar, Indiana University)

About this edition

• Publisher: Purdue University Press
• Publication date: 1990
• ISBN 10: 1557531528
• ISBN 13: 9781557531520
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 501
• Editor: Tamburri Anthony Julian, Giordano Paolo A., Gardaphé Fred L.