Synopses & Reviews
The highly-anticipated first English-language edition of the monumental critical anthology of writings from the golden age of the Italian disapora in America is now available. To appreciate the life of the Italian immigrant enclave from the great heart of the Italian migration to its settlement in America requires that one come to know how these immigrants saw their communities as colonies of the mother country. Edited with extraordinary skill, Italoamericana: The Literature of the Great Migration, 1880-1943 brings to an English-speaking audience a definitive collection of classic writings on, about, and from the formative years of the Italian-American experience.
Originally published in Italian, this landmark collection of translated writings establishes a rich, diverse, and mature sense of Italian-American life by allowing readers to see American society through the eyes of Italian-speaking immigrants. Filled with the voices from the first generation of Italian-American life, the book presents a unique treasury of long-inaccessible writing that embodies a literary canon for Italian-American culture--poetry, drama, journalism, political advocacy, history, memoir, biography, and story--the greater part of which has never before been translated.
Italoamericana introduces a new generation of readers to the "Black Hand" and the organized crime of the 1920s, the incredible "pulp" novels by Bernardino Ciambelli, Paolo Pallavicini, Italo Stanco, Corrado Altavilla, the exhilarating "macchiette" by Eduardo Migliaccio (Farfariello) and Tony Ferrazzano, the comedies by Giovanni De Rosalia, Riccardo Cordiferro's dramas and poems, the poetry of Fanny Vanzi-Mussini and Eduardo Migliaccio.
Edited by a leading journalist and scholar, Italoamericana introduces an important but little-known, largely inaccessible Italian-language literary heritage that defined the Italian-American experience. Organized into five sections--"Annals of the Great Exodus," "Colonial Chronicles," "On Stage (and Off-Stage)," "Anarchists, Socialist, Fascists, Anti-Fascists," and "Apocalyptic Integrated / Integrated Apocalyptic Intellectuals"--the volume distinguishes a literary, cultural, and intellectual history that engages the reader in all sorts of archaeological and genealogical work.
Review
"Robert Viscusi's American edition of Francesco Durante's anthology fills an enormous gap in Italian and Italian American studies. This is the first English-language edition of a collection of journalistic, literary and critical texts to offer deep and sweeping insight into the social lives and psychology of Italian immigrants up to the watershed years of World War II."-George Guida, New York City College of Technology, The City University of New York and President of the Italian American Studies Association
"Italoamericana is a supreme work of scholarship-an archive unto itself in the form of a meticulously researched and scrupulously glossed and documented historical anthology of the literary creation of the Italian migration."-Pellegrino D'Acierno, Hofstra University
"A sophisticated, critical look at the writings of Italian immigrants to America across all genres. . . This volume is a major work and forms an invaluable testament to a forgotten era of Italian literary history in the new world. . . A massive work of extraordinary power, that while scholarly and comprehensive, will have wide appeal."--Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
" . . . [A] kaleidoscopic, thousand-page anthology of memoirs, poetry, political commentary and newspaper excerpts . . ."--Sam Roberts, The New York Times
"This volume is a comprehensive compilation of writings by Italian American authors. First published in Italy, edited by journalist and literary scholar Durante, the anthology covers the mass migration of Italians to the United States up to World War II. . . VERDICT Highly recommended for anyone interested in immigrant literature and an essential purchase for any collection of Italian American literature and culture."--Morris Hounion, New York City College of Technology, Brooklyn, Library Journal
"This massive anthology rings out with the voices of legions of Italians and Italian Americans over six decades. From it flows their poetry, drama, stories, memories, novels, speeches, oral histories and more."--Doce Italiana
Synopsis
To appreciate the life of the Italian immigrant enclave from the great heart of the Italian migration to its settlement in America requires that one come to know how these immigrants saw their communities as colonies of the mother country. Edited with extraordinary skill, Italoamericana: The Literature of the Great Migration, 1880-1943 brings to an English-speaking audience a definitive collection of classic writings on, about, and from the formative years of the Italian-American experience. Originally published in Italian, this landmark collection of translated writings establishes a rich, diverse, and mature sense of Italian-American life by allowing readers to see American society through the eyes of Italian-speaking immigrants. Filled with the voices from the first generation of Italian-American life, the book presents a unique treasury of long-inaccessible writing that embodies a literary canon for Italian-American culture--poetry, drama, journalism, political advocacy, history, memoir, biography, and story--the greater part of which has never before been translated. Italoamericana introduces a new generation of readers to the "Black Hand" and the organized crime of the 1920s, the incredible "pulp" novels by Bernardino Ciambelli, Paolo Pallavicini, Italo Stanco, Corrado Altavilla, the exhilarating "macchiette" by Eduardo Migliaccio (Farfariello) and Tony Ferrazzano, the comedies by Giovanni De Rosalia, Riccardo Cordiferro's dramas and poems, the poetry of Fanny Vanzi-Mussini and Eduardo Migliaccio. Edited by a leading journalist and scholar, Italoamericana introduces an important but little-known, largely inaccessible Italian-language literary heritage that defined the Italian-American experience. Organized into five sections--"Annals of the Great Exodus," "Colonial Chronicles," "On Stage (and Off-Stage)," "Anarchists, Socialist, Fascists, Anti-Fascists," and "Apocalyptic Integrated / Integrated Apocalyptic Intellectuals"--the volume distinguishes a literary, cultural, and intellectual history that engages the reader in all sorts of archaeological and genealogical work. The original volume in Italian: Italoamericana Vol II: Storia e Letteratura degli Italiani negli Stati Uniti 1880-1943
About the Author
Francesco Durante is a journalist as well as Professor of literature at the University of Suor Orsola Benincasa as part of the Program in Modern Languages and Culture.
Robert Viscusi, Ph.D., is professor of English and executive officer of the Wolfe Institute for the Humanities at Brooklyn College, president of the Italian American Writers Association, novelist, critic, and scholar of Italian American literature and culture, author of the epic poem Ellis Island.
Anthony Julian Tamburri, Ph.D., is dean of the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute (Queens College, CUNY) and former president of the Italian American Studies Association and the American Association of Teachers of Italian. His latest book is Re-reading Italian Americana (2013).
James J. Periconi, a Manhattan attorney, exhibited his collection of more than one hundred Italian-language American imprints of authors whose works are excerpted in Italoamericana at New York's Grolier Club in 2012 and extensively catalogued these works in Strangers in a Strange Land.
Table of Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part I. Chronicle of the Great Exodus
Introduction
Carlo Barsotti
To the Readers
Ferdinando Fontana
Shine? . . . Shine?
Luigi Roversi
For Humanity
Rocco Corresca
Biography of a Bootblack
Gaetano Conte
Little Italy
Gino Carlo Speranza
How It Feels to Represent a Problem
Alberto Pecorini
The Children of Emigrants
Alberto Tarchiani
Neither Foreigners nor Americans
Al Capone
Public Service Is My Motto
Part II. Colonial Reports
Introduction
Luigi Donato Ventura
Peppino
Fanny Vanzi-Mussini
The Destruction of San Francisco, April 18, 1906
Adolfo Rossi
The Five Points
Giuseppe Antonio Cadicamo
To Giuseppe Giacosa
Edoardo Michelangeli
Two Stories
Bernardino Ciambelli
A Story, Sketches, and a Play
Camillo Cianfarra
An Emigrant's Diary
Thomas Fragale
Two Poems
Antonio Calitri
Two Poems
Angelo Rosati
Three Poems
Calicchiu Pucciu
The Poor Woman
Paolo Pallavicini
The Little Madonna of the Italians
Italo Stanco
Bohemian and Detective
Ernesto Valentini
Brunori's Fortune
Eugenio Camillo Branchi
Hold Up!
Dora Colonna
The Two Girlfriends
Caterina Maria Avella
The Flapper
Severina Magni
Seven Poems
Antonio Marinoni
The Hula Hula Flag
Corrado Altavilla
The Verdict
Part III. On Stage (and Off)
Introduction
Francesco Ricciardi
The Interrogation of Pulcinella
Riccardo Cordiferro
Four Poems and a Dramatic Play
Eduardo Migliaccio
Five Poems
Tony Ferrazzano
Three Poems
Giovanni De Rosalia
Nofrio on the Telephone
Armando Cennerazzo
Child Abductors, or The Black Hand
Gino Calza
Two Poems
Michele Pane
The Americanized Calabrian
Achille Almerini
Dante's Colony
Pasquale Seneca
The Pichinicco
Vincenzo Campora
Spaghetti House
Alfredo Borgianini
Two Poems
Rodolfo Valentino
Six Poems
Silvio Picchianti
Domestic Court
Ario Flamma
Leaves in the Whirlwind
Part IV. Anarchists, Socialists, Fascists, and Antifascists
Introduction
Giuseppe Ciancabilla
The First of May
Simplicio Righi
Two Poems
Luigi Galleani
Methods of the Socialist Struggle
Umberto Postiglione
An Editorial and a Dramatic Play
Ludovico M. Caminita
A Letter and a Story
Giuseppe Bertelli
Six Poems
Alberico Molinari
Brief Discourses
Arturo Giovannitti
Four Poems
Efrem Bartoletti
Four Poems
Vincenzo Vacirca
The Fire
Onorio RuotoloIn
Union Square Park
Agostino De Biasi
Fascism in America
Rosario Ingargiola
The Lighthouse
Rosa Zagnoni Marinoni
To Mussolini, the Immortal
Rosario Di Vita
Two Poems 000
Umberto Liberatore
Two Poems
Armando Borghi
The Failed Ambush
Virgilia D'Andrea
Remembering Michele Schirru
Raffaele Schiavina
What to Do?
Carlo Tresca
Two Articles
Ezio Taddei
Once Again Tresca
Part V. Integrated Apocalyptics
Introduction
Lisi Cecilia Cipriani
A Story and a Poem
Angelo Patri
A Schoolmaster of the Great City
Silvio VillaViola
Constantine PanunzioIn an Immigrant Community
Emanuel Carnevali
The Day of Summer
Pascal D'Angelo
Son of Italy
Francesco Ventresca
Incipit Vita Nova
Louis Forgione
The Torture of the Soul
Giuseppe Cautela
Miracle
Edward Corsi
A Picture of 1907
Notes
Bibliography
Index