Syllabus
Requirements
Attendance, readings, participation in class discussions, a 10-page research paper on a topic of your choice (to be approved by the instructor), final (oral) exam.
Required Texts
William. J. Connell, “A New History for a New Millennium,” in The Routledge History of Italian Americans(2018).
Pietro Di Donato, Christ in Concrete (1939).
Mario Puzo, The Fortunate Pilgrim (1965).
Helen Barolini, Umbertina (1979, excerpts).
Francesco Durante, “Chronicle of the Great Exodus,” “Colonial Chronicles,” “On Stage (and Off),” “Anarchists, Socialists, Fascists and Antifascists,” “Integrated Apocalyptics,” from Italoamericana: The Literature of the Great Migration, 1880-1943. (Fordham, 2014).
Pellegrino D’Acierno, “The Making of Italian American Cultural Identity: From La Cultura Negatato Strong Ethnicity,” in D’Acierno, ed. The Italian American Heritage. (Garland, 1999).
Rosemary Serra, “Contemporary Italian American Identities,” in The Routledge History of Italian Americans.
William J. Connell and Fred Gardaphé, Anti-Italianism: Essays on a Prejudice Palgrave (2004).
Salvatore La Gumina, WOP! A Documentary History of Anti-Italian Discrimination (1999).
L. Airos and O. Cappelli, eds. Guido: Italian American Youth and Identity Politics (Bordighera, 2011).
Kym Ragusa, The Skin Between Us: A Memoir of Race, Beauty and Belonging (2006).
Stanislao G. Pugliese, “The Future of Our Past,” in The Routledge History of Italian Americans.
Screenings
“La pena del pane” (The Cost of Bread) 2004; 18 mins. and “Ad Ipponion,” (Ode to Hipponion), Lucia Grillo, dir. 55 mins.
“Italianamerican,” Martin Scorsese, dir. 1974, 47 mins.
“Pane amaro” (Bitter Bread) Gianfranco Norelli, dir., 2013, 103 mins.
“Heaven Touches Brooklyn in July,” Tony DeNonno, dir., 2011, 57 mins.
“Fuori/Outside,” Kym Ragusa, dir., 1997, 12 mins.
“Anti-Italianism,” Paul Budline, dir., 2008, 30 mins.
“Il Volo,” Wim Wenders, dir. 2010; 32 mins.
“Sacco and Vanzetti,” Peter Miller, dir, 2007, 82 mins.
Excerpts provided as PDFs
The Routledge History of Italian Americans, William J. Connell & Stanislao G. Pugliese, eds.(2018)
Marcella Bencivenni, Italian Immigrant Radical Culture (2011)
Mary Jo Bono, By the Breath of Their Mouths (2014)
Maria Laurino, Old World Daughter, New World Mother (2010)
George De Stefano, An Offer We Can’t Refuse: The Mafia in the Mind of America (2007)
Annie Lanzillotto, L is for Lion: A Bronx Butch Freedom Memoir (2014)
Francesco Durante, Italoamericana: Literature from the Great Migration (2014)
Lawrence Di Stasi, Una Storia Segreta (2001)
Fred Gardaphé, From Wise Guys to Wise Men: The Gangster and Italian American Masculinities (2006)
Donald Tricarico, Italian American Youth Culture from Bensonhurst to Jersey Shore (2018)
John Gennari, Flavor and Soul: Italian American at its African America Edge(2017)
Jennifer Gugliemo, Living the Revolution(2010)
Jennifer Gugliemo and S. Salerno, eds. Are Italians White? How Race Is Made in America (2003)
Thomas Gugliemo, White on Arrival: Italians, Race, Color and Power in Chicago, 1890-1945 (2004)
Peter Vellon, A Great Conspiracy Against Our Race (2014)
Philip Cannistaro and Gerald Meyers, eds. The Lost World of Italian American Radicalism(2003)
Joseph Lo Giudice, Joseph and Michael Carasone, eds. Our Naked Lives: Essays From Gay Italian American Men.
Carlo Levi, Cristo si è fermato a Eboli (1945)
Some possible research topics:
(you are not limited to these topics)
In Mario Puzo’s The Fortunate Pilgrim, who is the pilgrim and why are they “fortunate”? What does the book tells us about Italian American life in Hell’s Kitchen at the time?
Pietro Di Donato’s Christ in Concrete, is a very different book/memoir from Puzo’s. How is Di Donato’s worldview challenged by big (historical) and small (personal) events?
Tony De Nonno’s “Heaven Touches Brooklyn in July” is a documentary of an Italian American feast in Brooklyn. After watching the documentary in class and having read Joseph Sciorra’s critique of the film, what are your thoughts? Is Sciorra’s criticism valid? How would your review of the film be different?
Combing the book and the documentary Anti-Italians: Essays on a Prejudice, do you think these stereotypes still carry the same power they once did? How and why do you think thee stereotypes come into existence? What do you see as the most dangerous stereotypes today, and why? Do you see similarities with any other ethnic groups? What can history teach us about such images and ideas?
How has race influenced Italian American culture? Can we trace a dominant trajectory for Italian Americans through racial categories? Were Italians always “white”? If not, how did they become so?
Trace the developments of gender politics in Italian American history. What was the effect of the patriarchal culture brought over from Italy? How have Italian and Italian American culture differed in the evolution of gender roles?
How can we explain the trajectory of Italian Americans from a world of anarchism, radicalism, trade unions, and the Democratic party to the GOP and conservative politics? Or, from Carlo Tresca, Vito Marcantonio and Mario Cuomo to Antonin Scalia and Sheriff Joe Arpaio?
