Middlebury

ITAL 6748

Journey thru Ital-American Lit

A Journey through Italian-American Literature

Why did Italian culture ignore the existence for so many years of an Italian-American culture and literature? What were the first literary traces left by Italian immigrants in the United States of America? These questions are fundamental to this course on the presence of Italian writers in America from 1890 until the end of World War II. Starting with the literary production of Giuseppe Prezzolini and Emilio Cecchi, cultural mediators between American culture in Italy and Italian culture in the New World, our study will include texts by Joseph Tusiani, Giovanni Cecchetti, Mario Soldati, Carlo Tresca and letters by Sacco e Vanzetti. Particular attention will be given to the writings of Giose Rimanelli, who immigrated to the USA and today is considered one of the greatest authors of contemporary Italian-American literature. We will examine the complexity of the American myth and its reception, through recurring themes such as flight, journey, roots, and the return to the native country, expressed symbolically through the use of the mother tongue or by code switching. Another objective of this course is to demonstrate how and to what extend the Italian cultural tradition played a role in the formation of a new literary universe born in a world of unpredictably and instability.

Required Texts:
-Italoamericana, Vol.II, a cura di Francesco Durante (Mondadori 2005); ISBN 88-04-54380-9 ( esiste pdf on line )
-G.Prezzolini, America in pantofole ( brani scelti ) , Vallecchi, 2002 ,
ISBN-10 888427073; ISBN-13 (978-888427078)
-E.Cecchi; America amara ( brani scelti ) il testo sarà fornito dalla docente
-Mal d’America. Da mito a realtà/, a cura di Ugo Rubeo (Edizioni Riuniti 1987) ISBN-10 8835930278 ;ISBN-13: 978-8835930273 ( brani selezionati )
-Giovanni Cecchetti ( poesie e prose selezionate ) I testi saranno forniti dalla docente
Giosè Rimanelli, /Il viaggio .un paese chiamato Molise
, 2003, Iannone,
ISBN -10 885160049X ;ISBN-13 97888516000495;
-Giosè Rimanelli ( poesie Tratte da Amerigo, a cura di A Vitti e M.R Pignatelli, Soleil, 2000,) I testi saranno forniti dalla docente.
Subject:
Italian
Department:
Italian
Division:
Language School
Requirements Fulfilled:
Literature

Sections

Summer 2016 Language Schools, Mills 6 Week Session

ITAL6748A-L16 Lecture (Privitera)