1 Identity on the Threshold: The Myth of Persephone in Italian American Women’s Memoirs Valentina Seffer A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Italian Studies, School of Languages and Cultures, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences 2015 2 Contents Acknowledgments ......................................................................................................... 6 Abstract ....................................................................................................................... 10 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 12 The myth of Persephone .......................................................................................... 25 Re-visioning Persephone in Italian American women’s works ............................... 33 Structure of the thesis .............................................................................................. 44 Chapter 1 ..................................................................................................................... 49 ‘No more masks! No more mythologies!’ ................................................................... 49 Persephone and Italian American Women Writers’ Memoirs .................................... 49 1. Memoir and nonfiction ........................................................................................ 52 2. Autobiography and memoir: a tug-of-war ........................................................... 55 3. The memoir: negotiating voice, form, and memory ............................................ 59 4. The literary marginality of Italian American women authors ............................. 66 5. The vessel of memory through orality and storytelling ....................................... 69 6. Abduction and departure ..................................................................................... 71 7. A journey in the dark realm of memory .............................................................. 75 8. Persephone returns: the power of writing ............................................................ 80 9. Travel and myth ................................................................................................... 83 10. Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 91 Chapter 2 ..................................................................................................................... 93 3 Routes and Roots of Empowerment in No Pictures In my Grave: A Spiritual Journey In Sicily by Susan Caperna Lloyd ............................................................................... 93 1. Writing travel and memories ............................................................................ 97 2. From Return to the Mother to No Pictures In my Grave: a title inversion ........ 102 3. A quest for identity through a quest for Carolina: the journey begins .............. 108 4. A physical and mythical journey of self-discovery ........................................... 112 5. Recovering memory through old myths and rituals .......................................... 121 6. Processional movements and patterns of inversion ........................................... 125 7. Procession and memory: the politics of circular narratives ............................... 129 8. Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 134 Chapter 3 ................................................................................................................... 139 Crossing the Threshold of the Skin through Persephone: Cultural Conflict in The Skin between Us by Kym Ragusa ...................................................................................... 139 1. The Skin between Us and the unstable border of skin ........................................... 143 2. Contesting: ‘The mythology Of East Harlem’ and practices of upward mobility ............................................................................................................................... 147 3. Disordering: the strategy of passing and the ideology of race .......................... 150 4. Connecting: building a transcultural bridge between Africa, America, and Europe .................................................................................................................... 159 5. Re-telling: re-inventing Persephone in Hades’ kingdom .................................. 166 6. Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 180 4 Chapter 4 ................................................................................................................... 184 The Ongoing Mythical Present in The Anarchist Bastard by Joanna Clapps Herman ................................................................................................................................... 184 1. The Anarchist Bastard: Growing Up Italian in America .................................. 186 2. Waterbury: an Italian American upbringing ...................................................... 190 3. Nostos: forms of homecoming ........................................................................... 195 4. Xenia: rules of hospitality .................................................................................. 201 5. Nekyia: the world of the dead and the ‘knowledge from beyond’ ..................... 206 6. Ascending and descending: Persephone’s abduction ........................................ 210 7. Persephone Περίφρωυ: the voice of wisdom ..................................................... 216 8. An Italian American upbringing through the language of Dante and Persephone ............................................................................................................................... 221 10. Conclusion ....................................................................................................... 228 Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 232 The Final Departure ............................................................................................... 241 Classica Italian Americana .................................................................................... 244 Appendix ................................................................................................................... 247 Interview with Susan Caperna Lloyd .................................................................... 247 Interview with Kym Ragusa ...................................................................................... 270 Interview with Joanna Clapps Herman .................................................................. 277 Bibliography .............................................................................................................. 308 5 Primary Sources ..................................................................................................... 308 Secondary Sources ................................................................................................. 309 Online Resources ................................................................................................... 338 6 Acknowledgments It is an immense pleasure for me to acknowledge the Institutions and the people that have made possible the completion of this dissertation. Firstly, thanks to Sydney University. The writing of this thesis was supported by The University of Sydney International Scholarship. I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Giorgia Alù, for her guidance throughout these four years. Thank you for believing in this project since day one. Words cannot express enough how much I appreciate her knowledge, support, advice, sense of humour, and her unique way of making me feel at ease. Thank you for taking us to the end of this journey. Thank you to my associate supervisors, Associate Professor Natalya Lusty and Professor Edvige Giunta; I could not have asked for anyone better. Thank you for reading horrible drafts of my work without judging me, but rather encouraging me to improve. To Professor Giunta, thank you also for welcoming me into her home in New Jersey; giving me a micro lesson in memoir writing; sharing her time and material on Italian American authors; and for having started her study on Persephone and Italian American women. This thesis grew out of my years of study at Università per Stranieri di Siena. I would like to thank Professor Massimo Vedovelli for his example of scholarship and for contributing to make Università per Stranieri di Siena such a place of continuous intellectual growth for its students. His passion for teaching and research are exemplary and I will be forever grateful I have had the opportunity to be in his class. To Professor Tiziana de Rogatis go my most sincere thank you for introducing me to the works of Kym Ragusa and the beauty and the feminine power of the myth of Persephone. I will always be indebted to her, who has followed my progress throughout all the stages of this Ph.D. I would like to thank her for her kind and supportive words, and for her friendship and example of sisterhood. I would never have been able to start and complete this thesis without her. To the amazing authors Joanna Clapps Herman, Susan Caperna Lloyd,