Writing with an Accent: Contemporary Italian American Women Authors

223 Pages·2002·22.47 MB·English

by  Edvige Giunta (auth.)

Writing with an Accent
Contemporary Italian American Women Authors
Edvige Giunta
palgrave
For Louise DeSalvo, Joshua Fausty,
and Cettina Minasola Giunta
and for my children, Emily and Matteo,
with love and gratitude
WRITING WITH AN ACCENT
*
Copyright © Edvige Giunta, 2002.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in
any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of
brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
First published in 2002 by
PALGRAVE™
175 Fifth Avenue New York, N.Y. 10010 and
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, England RG21 6XS.
Companies and representatives throughout the world.
PALGRAVE™ is the new global publishing imprint of St. Martin's Press
LLC Scholarly and Reference Division and Palgrave Publishers Ltd.
(formerly Macmillan Press ltd.).
ISBN 978-0-312-29469-4 ISBN 978-1-137-05049-6 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-137-05049-6
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Giunta, Edvige, 1959-
Writing with an accent: contemporary Italian American women authorsl
Edvige Giunta.
Inc1udes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-312-294694 (pbk)
1. American literature-Italian American authors-History and
criticism. 2. Women and literature-United States-History-20th
century. 3. American literature-Women authors-History and
criticism. 4. American literature-20th century-History and criticism.
5. Italian American women-Intellectuallife. 6. Italian Americans in
literature.
PS153.I8 G58 2002
810.9'9287'08951073-dc21
2001048209
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Design by Letra Libre, Inc.
First edition: ]anuary 2002
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
Transferred to Digital Printing 2012
Contents
Acknowledgments V
Priface Writing with an Accent IX
Introduetion What's in an Aeeent? 1
Chapter 1 OfWomen, Writing, and Reeognition 15
Chapter 2 Immigrant Literary Identities 35
Chapter 3 "A Song from the Ghetto" 53
Chapter 4 Speaking Through Silene es,
Writing Against Silenee 71
Chapter 5 "Spills of Mysterious Substanees" 93
Chapter 6 Forging Publie Voiees: Memory, Writing, Power 117
Epilogue Coming Horne to Language 139
Notes 145
Bibliography 169
Index 189
Ma fino a quando si pub chiedere alle cose ehe ci stanno intorno,
di rimanere forestiere, perfettamente comprensibili e remote nella
loro indecifrabilitil?
(But for how long can she expect things around her to remain for
eign, perfectly intelligible, yet far away and impossible to decipher?)
-Dacia Maraini, La lunga vita
di Marianna Ucria (The Silent Duchess)
A lingua ni tagghiaru quannu vinemmu ca.
(They cut our tongues out when we came here.)
-Rose Spinelli, Baking Bread
Everything my American friends say sounds like a translation.
-Caroie Maso, The American Woman in the Chinese Hat
Acknowledgments
S
ince 1992, I have been writing and giving papers and lectures on Ital
ian American wornen at conferences, universities, bookstores, and corn
rnunity centers. Sorne of these writings have becorne part of this book.
Earlier versions of chapters two and three appeared as afterwords to the
reprints ofHelen Barolini's Umbertina (1999) and Tina De Rosa's Paper Fish
(1996) (NewYork:The Feminist Press, CUNY). Earlier versions and sec
tions of Chapter 4 variously appeared in the following articles: "Speaking
Through Silences: Ethnicity in the Writings ofltalianlA rnerican Wornen"
in Race and Ethnic Discrimination in American Literature, edited by Michael
Meyer (Amsterdarn and Adanta: Rodopi Press, 1997); "Narratives of Loss:
Voices of Ethnicity in Agnes Rossi and Nancy Savoca" in The Canadian
Journal oJ Italian Studies, Special Issue on ltalian Arnerican Culture 19
(1996); "Reinventing the Authorial/Ethnic Space: Communal Narratives
in Agnes Rossi's Split Skirt" in Literary Studies East and ffist. Constructions
and Confrontations: Changing Representations oJ TMlmen and Feminisms, East
and ffist 12 (1996). A section of Chapter 5 appeared as "'Spills of Myste
rious Substances' or Making One's Own History: Tina De Rosa, Louise
DeSalvo, Sandra Mortola Gilbert, and Rose Rornano" in A Tavola: Food,
Tradition, and Community Among Italian Americans, edited by Edvige Giunta
and Sarnuel J. Patti (Staten Island, NY: Arnerican Italian Historical Associ
ation, 1998). Finally, sections of Chapter 6 appear in an article entided,
"Where They Corne Frorn: ltalian American Wornen Writers as Public In
tellectuals," included in a forthcoming volurne edited by Phil Cannistraro
and Gerald Meyers, The Lost Radicalism oJ Italian American and in the fol
lowing articles: "Teaching Mernoir at New Jersey City University:' pub
lished Transformations 11.1 (Spring 2000), "Wr iting Life, W riting History:
Italian American Wornen and the Memoir." Italian Americana 18.1 (Winter
2000); and "Figuring Race in Kym Ragusa's jUoriloutside," included in
Shades oJ Black and White: Conflict and Collaboration Between Two Communi
ties. Proceedings of the 30th Annual Conference of the American Italian
Historical Association, edited by Fred Gardaphe, Dan Ashyk, and Anthony
J. Tarnburri (Staten Island; American ltalian Historical Association, 1999).
VI Writing with an Accent
The writing of this book has been made possible by colleagues, stu
dents, friends, and family who have continuously sustained my work. John
Paul Russo first believed that I should write about Italian American liter
ature and pushed me to do so long before I became an Italian American.
My students in Italian American literature and film classes at Union Col
lege in the early 1990s first witnessed and shared my passion for Italian
American studies. The NEH Seminar on "Emerging American Litera
tures" run at Baruch College by John Brenkman in 1995 provided me
with many opportunities to explore issues that are central to this book. At
New Jersey City University, I found a welcoming and supportive ac ade
mic horne that treated my work as worthy and important. By granting re
lease time through a Separately Budgeted Research Grant, the University
helped me as I sought vital time to complete this book. I am grateful to
my colleagues at New Jersey City University for their support and to
Ansley LaMar for valuing and sustaining the memoir project, which has
deeply influenced my work on Italian American women writers. My grat
itude also to Larry Carter and Jo Bruno for their support. My memo ir stu
dents at New Jersey City University, who have taught and continue to
teach me about keeping one's commitment to one's writing in the most
difficult circumstances, have helped shape this book-especially the last
chapter-through their insights, their writings, and their community
building. I am especially thankful to the students whose writings are
quoted in this book.
My gratitude to Jean Casella and FIorence Howe, current and previous
directors of the Feminist Press, for having believed in and supported my
work since we first met. I wish to acknowledge Fred Gardaphe, Paolo Gior
dano, and Anthony Tamburri for their important work in Italian American
studies and for the consideration and support they have given to my own
work in the field. Peter Covino's poetry and his friendship have inspired
me; I only regret that the subject ofthis book did not allow any lengthy dis
cussion ofhis remarkable contribution to Italian American literature. I also
wish to acknowledge Stefano Albertini, Maura Burnett, Ernie De Salvo,
Maria Vittoria D'A mico, Carlos Coello, Michael Eskin, Lisa Vanderlinden,
Barbara Stacy, Deborah Starewich, Laura Lawrie, Regina Tuma, Nino Ca
muso, Eric Bulson, Caterina Romeo, Bob Viscusi, Ben Lawton, Peter Car
ravetta, Carol Bonomo Albright, Anthony Valerio, and Phil Cannistraro. My
colleagues and friends, Fawzia Afzal-Khan, Kym Ragusa, and Jennifer
Guglielmo, read some of the chapters and offered exacting and astute crit
icism: I am deeply grateful for their help and friendship, as well as for the
inspiration their work has provided. My gratitude to Audrey Goldrich for
her unfailing encouragement and confidence in my work. Thank you to
Rosette Capotorto, Mary Cappello, Maria Mazziotti Gillan, Gioia Timpan-
Acknowledgments Vll
elli, Rita Ciresi, Marisa Labozzetta, Nancy Caronia,Agnes Rossi, Sandra M.
Gilbert, Mary Saracino, Nancy Azara, Nancy Savoca, Adele Regina La
Barre, Franca Barchiesi, Joanna Clapps Herman, Mariarosy Calleri,
Phyllis Capello, Annie Lanzillotto, B. Amore, Carole Maso, Maria Fama,
Mary Russo Demetrick, Vittoria repetto, Dorian Cirrone, Loryn Lipari,
Flavia Rando, Maria Laurino, Jeanette Vuocolo, Luisa Pretolani, Giuliana
Miuccio, and all my Italian American sisters, who have believed in and
helped make my work possible.
I have been fortunate enough to have Michael Flamini as an editor: I
am grateful to him for his enthusiasm about and commitment to this proj
ect; my thanks also to Amanda Johnson, Amanda Fernandez, and Donna
Cherry at Palgrave for their invaluable help.
My gratitude, also, to the Giunta, Minasola, Urbano, Ossip, Forster, and
Fausty families-my Italian and American families-for their love for me
and their faith in my work. Among family members, Irwin Forster has
been a sharp and devoted reader, whose opinions and insights I will always
cherish. I am grateful to Al and Andy Ossip for their loving support and
for rescuing my children-their grandchildren-when I locked myself in
my office to write or when I needed to get a breath of fresh air. The his
tory lessons of my father, Vincenzo Giunta, were very much on my mind
while writing this book. Claudia Giunta, loving sister, brilliant lawyer, fel
low immigrant and Italian-American-in-the-making, has given me her
friendship, insight, and humor when I needed them most.
My mother, Cettina Minasola Giunta, who saves all my letters and al
ways believed I should write, came to my rescue when the deadline was
looming; she continued to be by my side--even six thousand rniles away
as did my grandmother, Nunziatina Nuncibello Minasola.
I thank Louise DeSalvo for her friendship, for her work, and for her ex
traordinary generosity; for Vertigo, a book that has transformed lives, in
cluding my own and those of many of my students; for reading and
responding to portions of the manuscript; for helping me see (and feel) that
my work is important; for our many enlightening conversations about Ital
ian American literature, especially in a multicultural and feminist context;
for being my guiding light as I have ventured into the territory of memoir
reading, writing, and teaching; for cooking gourmet meals for me when I
was beaten down and had no strength or will to cook, much less to keep
writing; for acknowledging the struggles of her own life, which has been
contagious and healing; for our daily conversations which, whether we are
talking about tomato sauce or our writing, have sprinkled my life with plea
sure; for her wisdom and her strength; for her courage; for her example.
My husband, Josh Fausty, has traveled with me through each stage of
this book since its inception and has known it in each of its incarnations.
viii Writing with an Accent
I am grateful to hirn for his countless readings, his patience, his cooking
and his deaning, his love, and, most of all, for being with me throughout
this book's journey and our own. Finally, I thank my 12-year old daugh
ter, Emily Giunta-Cutts, the youngest Italian American woman writer I
know, and my 2-year old son, Matteo Giunta Fausty, who have lived with
this book and who fill my life with joy. They are two of the greatest plea
sures of my life between cultures and languages; for this, and for them, I
will always be grateful.
Edvige Giunta
Teaneck, New Jersey
Preface
Writing with an Accent
J
ersey City, early July 1998. I am sorting clothes and books, packing for
a month away from the place that I currendy call horne, getting ready to
return to Italy, my other horne. I linger by the neat row of Italian books,
right next to the bookshelf that holds my Italian American collection, and
pull out a couple ofbooks from the odd assortment ofItalian writers that
includes Verga, Maraini, Leopardi, Messina (both Maria and Annie), Ar
iosto, Cutrufelli, La Spina, Lampedusa, and, of course, Dante. What better
time than my upcoming stay in Italy to read the batch of recent Italian
books I had asked my mother to send me a while ago and that have been
waiting patiendy for my attention? What better time-and place-to
reread Leonardo Sciascia's La Sicilia come metqfora or Pirandello's Uno, nes
suno e centomila? In Italy, I will be able to hear my voice speak without any
trace of the accent that, as I often say half-seriously, I cultivate with daily
devotion in the United States. In Italy, my cultural identity and the way in
which I articulate it will be transparent, uncomplicated. After all, I am Ital
ian: Born in Italy, I lived in that country for the first 25 years of my life; I
have returned there many tim es; most of my farnily and many of my clos
est friends live in Italy. I maintain, to this day, my Italian citizenship, even
though in 1999 I also became an American citizen. Should not my Italian
identity be clear and simple?
However, I regard myself as an Italian American, too, although I am not
exactly sure when I became one. It was long before I became an Ameri
can citizen. I began to call myself Italian American when American En
glish no longer felt clumsy and hard on my tongue; when I stopped
shuttling back and forth between Italy and the United States, and did not
go back to Italy for five years; when I started feeling kinship and solidar
ity toward the descendants of earlier Italian immigrants in the United
States. In some ways, my choice to call mys elf Italian American is political,
a response to those who claim that I do not fulfill their expectations of