Italian Folk : Vernacular Culture in Italian-American Lives / ed. by Joseph Sciorra.
Cicala, John Allan, contributor.; Cinotto, Simone, contributor.; Del Giudice, Luisa, contributor.; Inguanti, Joseph J., contributor.; Jacobson, Marion S., contributor.; Magliocco, Sabina, contributor.; Pascali, Lara, contributor.; Savastano, Peter, contributor.; Saverino, Joan L., contributor.; Scambray, Kenneth, contributor.; Sciorra, Joseph, contributor.; Sciorra, Joseph, editor.
2022
Linked e-resources
Linked Resource
Online Access
Details
Title
Italian Folk : Vernacular Culture in Italian-American Lives / ed. by Joseph Sciorra.
ISBN
9780823291908
Published
New York, NY : Fordham University Press, [2022]
Copyright
©2011
Language
English
Language Note
In English.
Description
1 online resource (288 p.) : 30 Illustrations, black and white
Other Standard Identifiers
10.1515/9780823291908 doi
Summary
Sunday dinners, basement kitchens, and backyard gardens are everyday cultural entities long associated with Italian Americans, yet the general perception of them remains superficial and stereotypical at best. For many people, these scenarios trigger ingrained assumptions about individuals' beliefs, politics, aesthetics, values, and behaviors that leave little room for nuance and elaboration. This collection of essays explores local knowledge and aesthetic practices, often marked as "folklore," as sources for creativity and meaning in Italian-American lives. As the contributors demonstrate, folklore provides contemporary scholars with occasions for observing and interpreting behaviors and objects as part of lived experiences. Its study provides new ways of understanding how individuals and groups reproduce and contest identities and ideologies through expressive means. Italian Folk offers an opportunity to reexamine and rethink what we know about Italian Americans. The contributors to this unique book discuss historic and contemporary cultural expressions and religious practices from various parts of the United States and Canada to examine how they operate at local, national, and transnational levels. The essays attest to people's ability and willingness to create and reproduce certain cultural modes that connect them to social entities such as the family, the neighborhood, and the amorphous and fleeting communities that emerge in large-scale festivals and now on the Internet. Italian Americans abandon, reproduce, and/or revive various cultural elements in relationship to ever-shifting political, economic, and social conditions. The results are dynamic, hybrid cultural forms such as valtaro accordion music, Sicilian oral poetry, a Columbus Day parade, and witchcraft (stregheria). By taking a closer look and an ethnographic approach to expressive behavior, we see that Italian-American identity is far from being a linear path of assimilation from Italian immigrant to American of Italian descent but is instead fraught with conflict, negotiation, and creative solutions. Together, these essays illustrate how folklore is evoked in the continual process of identity revaluation and reformation.
Access Note
Access limited to authorized users.
System Details Note
Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
Digital File Characteristics
text file PDF
Source of Description
Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 03. Jan 2023)
Added Author
Cicala, John Allan, contributor.
Cinotto, Simone, contributor.
Del Giudice, Luisa, contributor.
Inguanti, Joseph J., contributor.
Jacobson, Marion S., contributor.
Magliocco, Sabina, contributor.
Pascali, Lara, contributor.
Savastano, Peter, contributor.
Saverino, Joan L., contributor.
Scambray, Kenneth, contributor.
Sciorra, Joseph, contributor.
Sciorra, Joseph, editor.
Cinotto, Simone, contributor.
Del Giudice, Luisa, contributor.
Inguanti, Joseph J., contributor.
Jacobson, Marion S., contributor.
Magliocco, Sabina, contributor.
Pascali, Lara, contributor.
Savastano, Peter, contributor.
Saverino, Joan L., contributor.
Scambray, Kenneth, contributor.
Sciorra, Joseph, contributor.
Sciorra, Joseph, editor.
Series
Critical Studies in Italian America
In
Fordham University Press Complete eBook-Package Pre-2014
Fordham University Press eBook-Package Backlist 2000-2013
Fordham University Press eBook-Package Backlist 2000-2013
Available in Other Form
print 9780823232666
Linked Resources
Online Access
Record Appears in
Online Resources > Ebooks
All Resources
All Resources
Table of Contents
Frontmatter
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Listening with an Accent
''Sunday Dinner? You Had to Be There!''
Cuscuszu in Detroit, July 18, 1993
The Italian Immigrant Basement Kitchen in North America
Creative Responses to the Italian Immigrant Experience in California
Landscapes of Order, Landscapes of Memory
Locating Memory
Valtaro Musette
Italians in Public Memory
Changing St. Gerard's Clothes
Cursed Flesh
Imagining the Strega
Notes
Contributors
Index
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Listening with an Accent
''Sunday Dinner? You Had to Be There!''
Cuscuszu in Detroit, July 18, 1993
The Italian Immigrant Basement Kitchen in North America
Creative Responses to the Italian Immigrant Experience in California
Landscapes of Order, Landscapes of Memory
Locating Memory
Valtaro Musette
Italians in Public Memory
Changing St. Gerard's Clothes
Cursed Flesh
Imagining the Strega
Notes
Contributors
Index