Beyond The Godfather : Italian American Writers on the Real Italian American Experience

In The New York Times Book Review, Gay Talese Raised The Question. Where Are All The Italian American Writers? Two Years Later, Editors Ciongoli And Parini Respond Convincingly With This Anthology Of Essays By 23 Italian American Writers. Memoirs In The First Section Reveal The Truths Of The People And Relationships Behind The Stereotypes. Whether Reflecting On Rosary Beads, The Aroma Of Garlic Sauteed In Olive Oil, A Bigotry That Labels A Child The Smelly Italian, Or The Art Of Perfect Ironing, These Writers Share Abiding Love And Respect For Their Cultural Heritage And Engage Readers With Their Poignant Accounts. Some Consider How These Experiences Shaped Them As Writers: Talese Himself Credits Time Spent In His Family's Dress Shop As The Source Of His Nonfiction Writing Style. The Next Section Provides Analyses Of Italian American Literature, And A Third Traces Some Italian American Political Struggles. Finding My Way / Louise Desalvo -- My Aunts Taught Me To Dance / Regina Barreca -- The Edge Of Night / Frank Lentricchia -- Mysteries Of The Hyphen : Poetry, Pasta, And Identity Politics / Sandra M. Gilbert -- Respect / Alane Salierno Mason -- Origins Of A Nonfiction Writer / Gay Talese -- Scents : A Selection From A Memoir Of Italian American Life / Maria Laurino -- Amalfi Days / Jay Parini -- Of Cheese And Choices / Claire Gaudiani -- Shadows In The Garden : Poets Of Loss, Italian/american Style / Mary Cappello -- What Grandma Knew / John Agresto -- On Being White, Female, And Born In Bensohurst / Marianna De Marco Torgovnick -- What Is Italian American Poetry? / Dana Gioia -- Breaking And Entering : An Italian American's Literary Odyssey / Fred L. Gardaphe -- Rethinking The Italian/american Writer : Tony Ardizzone's Expressive Stories Of The Evening News / Anthony J. Tamburri -- 'a Song From The Ghetto' / Edvige Giunta -- Italian Americans And American Politics / Michael Barone -- Cryptoethnicity / Linda Hutcheson -- The Way Of The Wasp / A. Kenneth Ciongoli -- Italian Americans Address America's Problems : Families And Children In The Twenty-first Century / Matilda Cuomo -- The Crisis Of Italian American Identity / Richard Gambino -- The 80th Street Mafia / Joseph V. Scelsa -- Are Italian Americans Just White Folks? / Rudolph J. Vecoli. A. Kenneth Ciongoli And Jay Parini, Editors. Includes Bibliographical References. Since the introduction of the "Kodak" in 1888, the family photograph has provided the family with its primary means of self-knowledge and continuity. Yet family pictures tend to follow rigid conventions which support dominant familial myths and ideologies, representing the family quite uniformly as happy, stable, and unchanging. In The Familial Gaze, 22 experts -- photographers, artists, curators, writers, literary theorists, and historians -- scrutinize family photographs to reveal their power to shape our personal memories and self-conceptions. But in the images they create and discuss, these artist and writers also find an often surprising and imaginative resistance to social and aesthetic conventions. They thus expose the contradictory cultural impact of private images. This startlingly original book reveals family photography to be a truly compelling and new field of inquiry Twenty-three Italian American writers explore the deeper cultural heritage of Italians beneath the stereotypes and the way their ethnicity has influenced their writing; analyze Italian American literature; and recount the political battles of Italian Americans. UP.