Italian Signs, American Streets - The Evolution of Italian American Narrative

"Bursting with energy and insights. Fred Gardaphe has added a powerful and original chapter to the literary history of modern America."--Frank Lentricchia

List of contents

Acknowledgments vii

Introduction 1

1. Narrative in the Poetic Mode 24

2. The Early Mythic Mode: From Autobiography to Autobiographical Fiction 55

3. The Middle Mythic Mode: Godfathers as Heroes, Variations on a Figure 86

4. The Later Mythic Mode: Reinventing Ethnicity through the Grandmother Figure 119

5. Narrative in the Philosophical Mode 153

Epilogue 193

Notes 201

Works Cited 221

Index 235

About the author

Fred L. Gardaphé is Professor of English at Columbia College, Chicago. He is the editor of Italian American Ways and author of Dagoes Read: Tradition and the Italian American Writer.

Summary

Presents an interpretive overview of Italian American literary history. This book develops a perspective variously historical, philosophical, and cultural by which American writers of Italian descent can be read, increasing the discursive power of an ethnic literature that has received too little serious critical attention.

Product details

• Authors: Fred L. Gardaphe, Fred L. Gardaph, Gardaphe, Fred Gardaphe, Fred L. Gardaphe, Fred L Gardaphé, Fred L. Gardaphé
• Publisher: Duke University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 05.03.1996
• EAN: 9780822317395
• ISBN: 978-0-8223-1739-5
• No. of pages: 256
• Dimensions: 229 mm x 155 mm x 20 mm
• Weight: 452 g
• Series: New Americanists; New Americanists
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative literary studies; Anthropologie, Vereinigte Staaten von Amerika, USA, Literaturwissenschaft, allgemein, Literaturwissenschaft: Prosa, Erzählung, Roman, Autoren, Amerikanisches Englisch