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 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 ince 1992, I have been writing and giving papers and lectures on Ital Sian 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 ofltalianlArnerican 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), "Writing 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'Amico, 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,

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