Methodological Reflections on Italian-Canadian Storytelling
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METHODOLOGICAL REFLECTIONS ON ITALIAN-CANADIAN STORYTELLING GABRIELLA COLUSSI ARTHUR A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY GRADUATE PROGRAM IN EDUCATION YORK UNIVERSITY TORONTO, ONTARIO September 2014 © Gabriella Colussi Arthur, 2014 ABSTRACT This dissertation considers existing methodological practices in the collection of Italian- Canadian immigrant family narratives and focuses on a number of immigrant family stories recounted by my Northern Italian, Friulian-born parent-informants as collected from my role as a trilingual daughter-as-researcher. After reflecting on aspects of qualitative methodology that deal with collecting narratives at large, I present a triangulated, interconnected model that I call Breadth, Depth, and Form, based on three foundational approaches: life history, narrative inquiry and oral history. Breadth contextualizes my informants across time and space; depth allows me to focus on my informants as individual and reflect of the narrative meaning for my informants; form allows me to recognize and document the authentic, original language(s) of the narratives themselves. Chapter One examines the foundational aspects of my methodology and introduces my triangulated approach with a series of methodological considerations; Chapter Two presents the field of Italian migration and ethnic studies most pertinent to my work; Chapter Three describes the scholarship on Friulian immigration to North America and provides a brief overview of the history of Friulian language and its place in the diaspora. Chapter Four explores my position as daughter-as-researcher (DAR) and provides detailed reflections on my role as insider; Chapter Five culminates with an analysis of my informants’ narratives based on content and form. ii DEDICATION To my parents, Giovanni and Rina Colussi Stephanie Brown Clark and In memory of David A. Clark iii ACKNOWLEGEMENTS The sequence of events to which I owe the success of this undertaking begins with a YUFA Educational Leave in 2008 that Robert Drummond (then Dean of the former Faculty of Arts) supported unconditionally. I discovered that it would be possible to fulfill a longstanding ambition of mine to earn a doctorate. More significantly, I would be able to do so at my own institution’s Faculty of Education, renowned for its interdisciplinarity. I am grateful for the team of Alison Griffith, Carl James, Naomi Norquay, Esther Fine, Celia Haig-Brown, and Paul Axelrod whose coursework and areas of expertise started me on my way. I could not have navigated new library skills and uncovered new bibliographic sources without Peggy Warren, reference librarian extraordinaire who is assigned to Education and Romance Languages & Literatures. Without the benefit of her breadth and depth of knowledge, diligence and patience, I would have had to face the many new protocols in library navigation alone. I owe a special thanks to Elizabete Petersons, the Graduate Faculty Program Coordinator, who, retired in June 2014 and to Laura Greco and Loretta Fiorini, currently in the Graduate Education office who, working as a team, ensured timely completion of all administrative requirements. In my academic life at York University I have had a special mentor, Dr. Livio A. Visano, who in 1992 invited me to apply for the Program Directorship of The Mariano A. Elia Chair in Italian- Canadian Studies. It was my introduction to that field that started me on the path of investigating Italian-Canadian immigrant stories and reflecting on my relationship as a daughter of first generation immigrants. Through his guidance, I developed the courage to pursue new areas of knowledge and, as supervisor in the final stages of my work, led me patiently through to successful and spirited completion. Grazie infinite… Thirty years of professional and personal goals have brought me to this juncture, built upon the foundation provided me by my immigrant parents, who always believed in higher education and allowed me to pursue my academic dreams. One of those opportunities resulted in meeting my husband, Dr. Richard T.W. Arthur, professor of Philosophy, who, over a period of twenty-seven years, has been unconditionally supportive, proud of the fact that I undertook this challenge when I did. Our adult sons, Alexander and Thomas, have also been steadfast in their love, enthusiasm and patience, doing their share for the family when I needed to carve out time for composition and revisions. There are many friends and colleagues from the field of Italian Studies in North America and from York University more widely who have directly or indirectly sustained me through this process with their guidance and care. Spanning the arch of time, from the application stage to completion these include Michael Lettieri, Nicholas Elson, Susan Warwick, Joanne Nonnekes, Roberto Perin, William Jenkins, Thomas Cohen, Gabriele Scardellato, Jay Goulding, Maria Cioni, Mauro Buccheri, Roberta Sinyor, Joseph Sinyor, Ellen Anderson and Charles Weibe. Then there are also close friends, collaborators, butterfly sisters, and role models. Allow me to thank, in particular, Angela and Ugo Piscitelli, who have followed my career development from early stages with a guiding and wise hand. I am deeply and sincerely grateful to you all for your unwavering support and encouragement. iv My coach and North Star has been Dr. Stephanie Brown Clark, Director of Medical Humanities at the University of Rochester. We met in 1977 when she came, as a young high school graduate to Siena, to study Italian, where I was pursuing summer studies abroad in my second year. Her extraordinary life path—professionally, she holds a M.A. in English, a MD in general medicine and a Ph.D. in Medical Humanities; personally, she married David A. Clark, communications engineer extraordinaire and author of numerous patents—led to Rochester, where she and Dave raised their wonderful two children, Zoe and Max together until Dave’s passing in December 2008. Dave’s unbeknownst gift to me became his home, a place of refuge, quiet and concentration; where I have been able to build this work over a period of six years. I dedicate this work to Stephanie and I offer it in memory of David A. Clark: a most kind, soft-spoken, hard-working, and generous soul, who so loved us all. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract…………………………………………………………………………….……ii Dedication…………….…………………………………………………………..…......iii Acknowledgments…...…………………….………………………………………….....iv Table of Contents………………………………………………………………………..vi List of Figures……….………………………………………………………………..…vii List of Tables………...…………………………………………………………….....…viii Introduction……….………..……………………………………………………………1 Chapter One A Triangulated Approach: Definition and Methodological Considerations……..………..……...…9 Chapter Two Perspectives of Italian migration studies in North America………..…. 28 Chapter Three Perspectives on Friulian Migration History………………………….….54 Chapter Four Considerations on Daughter-as-Researcher……...…….…………….…68 Chapter Five Decoding Key Stories: Content and Form…….……….………………..85 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………….………108 References…………………………………………………………………….………112 Appendices…………..………………………………………………………………..132 Appendix A: Webpages…………….………………………………………………....132 Appendix B: Glossary…………………………………………………………………133 Appendix C: Canadian Multicultural Act……………………..………………………135 vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1 Breadth, Depth, Form page 14 Figure 2 The Life Course Perspective page 16 vii LIST OF TABLES Table 1 Features of the Concordese variety page 102 Table 2 The Family page 103 Table 3 Trades and/or professions page 103 Table 4 Topography page 103 Table 5: Atmospheric phenomena page 104 Table 6 Foods page 104 Table 7 The House and Kitchen page 105 Table 8 Verbs page 106 viii INTRODUCTION This interdisciplinary doctoral dissertation, on the methodology of Italian-Canadian family migration stories, represents a “eureka” moment for me, since it has allowed me to weave a complex, but interconnected network of narrative analysis models, comprising life history (Denzin 1997; Bertaux, 1981, 1982); life course perspective (G. Elder Jr., 1985; Giele, J.Z. & Elder, G.H. Jr, 1998; Elder, G.H. Jr & Giele, J.Z., 2009); narrative inquiry (Connelly and Clandinin, 1990; Denzin, 1997) and oral history (Thompson, 1978; Passerini, 1987; Portelli, 1991) in the examination of my Italian-Canadian parents’ family migration stories. Framed by the role of interconnectivity between my informants and me as daughter-as-researcher (Adler and Adler, 1987), I examine the essential components of context, content, and form in order to convey as authentically and comprehensively as possible the narratives in their own voice. I propose a tripart methodology comprising breadth, which contextualizes the lives of my informants over time and space; depth, which focuses on my informants’ life experiences and personal meaning and form, which attends to the medium of my informants’ stories. The question of methodology emerged as I began reviewing existing works in the field of Italian-Canadian history and ethnic studies; qualitative methodologies such as narrative inquiry, oral history, and life-course perspective and the implications of my role as daughter-as- researcher, a role which some in the field had already briefly considered (Sturino, 1978; Migliore, 1997). Carmen Shields (2005) in her work, Using narrative inquiry to inform and guide our (re) interpretations of lived experience notes that “Perhaps it goes without