A semiotic of ethnicity : in (re)cognition of the Italian/American writer / Anthony Julian Tamburri.

ISBN:

9780585075136

Title:

Author:

Tamburri, Anthony Julian.

Personal Author:

Tamburri, Anthony Julian.

Publication Information:

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xii, 176 pages).

Series:

SUNY series in Italian/American studies

Contents:

In (re)cognition of the Italian/American writer: definitions and categories -- Tony Ardizzone's "expressive" evening news -- Helen Barolini's "comparative: Umbertina: the Italian/American woman -- Giose Rimanelli's "synthetic" Benedetta in Guysterland: a "liquid" novel of questionable textual boundaries -- Looking back: the image of Italy in Umbertina -- Gianna Patriarca's "tragic" thought: Italian women and other tragedies -- Italian/American writer or Italian poet abroad?: Luigi Fontanella's poetic voyage -- Italian/American cultural studies: looking forward.

Local Note:

eBooks on EBSCOhost

Subject Term:

American literature -- Italian American authors -- History and criticism.

American literature -- Italian influences.

Italian Americans -- Intellectual life.

Italian Americans in literature.

Semiotics and literature.

Ethnicity in literature.

Format:

Electronic Resources

Electronic Access:

Click here to view

Publication Date:

1998

Publication Information:

Available:*

Shelf Number	Material Type	Copy	Shelf Location	Status
810.98951 21	1:E-BOOK	1	1:ONLINE	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

Using semiotics as a theoretical foundation, this book reexamines the notion of the hyphenate writer. It argues for an analogous set of categories no longer chronologically or generationally based, but cognitively based, so that the traditionally considered "first-stage" or first generation hyphenate writer now figures as an "expressive" writer who is not necessarily part of the immigrant or first American-born generations. He or she may actually belong to a later generation and write about his or her ethnicity with those characteristics more readily associated with the first-stage hyphenate writer.

Reviews (1)

Choice Review

Editor (with Paolo Giordano) of Beyond the Margins: Readings in Italian Americana (CH, Nov'98), Tamburri (Purdue Univ.) here borrows from Charles S. Peirce a taxonomy that is cognitive instead of generational or chronological. According to the author, first-generation writers now deem writers not necessarily from the immigrant generation "expressive"; writers who polarize the cultural heritage and the dominant culture are "comparative"; those who bind life together are "synthetic." Typically synthetic is Giose Rimanelli, who grew up in Italy but has spent four decades in the US. A third-generation writer who rediscovers his ethnicity--for example, Tony Ardizzone (Tamburri's chapter on him appeared in Beyond The Godfather, CH, Apr'98)--is expressive. Other writers discussed include Helen Barolini, comparative because she is familiar with both the US and Italy; Canadian poet Gianna Patriarca; and Italian poet Luigi Fontanella. Tamburri offers those interested in the genre some valuable tips: e.g., students and scholars must look at Italy as the historical intertext to understand better the Italian American phenomenon within multiculturalism; and Italian Americans must speak in terms of us and them, not us against them. Since Tamburri presupposes familiarity with the authors discussed, this volume is recommended as a work of criticism for upper-division undergraduates through faculty but not as a sourcebook for beginners. J. Shreve; Allegany College of Maryland