Examines the transformations of Italian American ethnic identity in twentieth-century Philadelphia.
“Stefano Luconi delivers a compelling study of twentieth-century identity and politics. Focusing on key historical moments, Luconi traces political and personal enactments of race relations. His incisive investigation of the mayoral tenure and many campaigns of Police Commissioner Frank L. Rizzo during the 1970s and &...(Read More)
An unusual, deft, often piercing meditation on storytelling, ethnicity, and the Italian/American experience.
At eighteen Robert Tagliaferro, an orphan of ambiguous racial and ethnic identity, disappears from his hometown of Utica, New York. At sixty he returns, forgotten by nearly everyone and searching the bin of memory for something to salvage. Having lived for decades inside a bookstore, his search for identity has t...(Read More)
Che Bella Figura!
(April 1999)
The Power of Performance in an Italian Ladies' Club in Chicago Gloria Nardini - Author
A colorful ethnography of an Italian ladies' club, this book explores the historical and linguistic importance of the women's language and behavior.
Literally translated, fare bella figura means "to make a beautiful figure," and figuratively it refers to the act of putting on a good show, performance, or display. The author uncovers the "real rules" of an Italian "ladies'" club by analyzing their language and behavior. In so do...(Read More)
A Semiotic of Ethnicity
(September 1998)
In (Re)cognition of the Italian/American Writer Anthony Julian Tamburri - Author
Reexamines the notion of the "hyphenate writer," and offers a specific reading strategy that we may consider the Italian/American writer in the age of semiotics, poststructuralism, and the like.
"Tamburri makes crucial connections among the various generations of Italian/American writers, that, while rooted in the most authoritative scholarship, also provokes us to 'look forward' as to how we might see Ita...(Read More)
