Intersecting Diasporas: Italian Americans and Allyship in US Fiction

Description

Examines literary expressions of allyship between Italian America and other diasporic communities in modern and contemporary US fiction. Intersecting Diasporas examines literary expressions of allyship between Italian America and other diasporic communities in modern and contemporary US fiction. Rewriting the Anglo-American genre of the “Italian novel,” authors like James Baldwin, Bernard Malamud, Carolina De Robertis, and Chang-rae Lee have disrupted misconceptions of Italian and Italian American identity while confronting Italians’ own complicity with white racism. Likewise, Italian American authors from John Fante to Tina De Rosa have written in solidarity with Black, Chicanx, Filipinx, Jewish, Romani, and Irish diasporic communities on US shores, unsettling stereotypes and dissecting Italian America’s history of flawed allyship across diasporas. Suzanne Manizza Roszak traces these gestures of literary solidarity; considers how they relate to the writers’ critiques of toxic masculinity, antiqueerness, and socioeconomic injustice; and proposes interdiasporic allyship as a practice of reconciliation and healing. Suzanne Manizza Roszak is Assistant Professor of English at East Carolina University. Contents Acknowledgments Introduction Defining Terms: From Diaspora to Italianità Recalling Histories Writers and Readers Crossing Borders Part I. Representational Roots Chapter 1 Romance, Liberation, and Peril: Representing Italian Identities from Outside the Diaspora(s) Henry James: Italianità and the Fortune-Hunter Louisa May Alcott: Those Romantic Italians Edith Wharton: An American Secret in Rome Patricia Highsmith: Murder in Italy Looking Forward Part II. Diasporic Writers on Italian America Chapter 2 Sex and Diaspora in the New “Italian Novel”: James Baldwin and Bernard Malamud Rethinking Sex through Diaspora Familiar Strangeness and the New “Italian Novel” Diasporic Literatures and Good Allies Chapter 3 Privileged Italians, Poor Italians: Carolina De Robertis, Chang-rae Lee, and Italy in the Americas Scrutinizing Diaspora and Remaking Italianità Doing Tango, Thinking through Class Indistinguishable Italians? Whose House Is This, Anyway? Looking Forward Part III. Returning the Favor: Italian Americans Write Back Chapter 4 “Mayan Queens,” Secondhand Suits, and Toxic White Masculinity: Fante and DeLillo Uncovering Diasporas Racial Anxiety, Class Consciousness, and Toxic Masculinity At Home and Displaced in Postmodern America Whiteness, Wealth, and Masculinity: DeLillo’s Literary Allyship Centering Men: Two Cautionary Tales Chapter 5 Off-White Allies: Writing Irish and Romani Women’s Lives from Puzo to De Rosa Puzo, Gender, and the Italian Diaspora Encountering Irish America Writing Romani Lives: The Other Side of “Off-White” De Rosa’s (Other) Gender Dilemmas Allyship Two Ways Conclusion The Limits of Allyship: Returning to Italy with A Ciambra Notes Bibliography Index