Intersecting Diasporas by Suzanne Manizza Roszak

Intersecting Diasporas by Suzanne Manizza Roszak

Examines literary expressions of allyship between Italian America and other diasporic communities in modern and contemporary US fiction.

Intersecting Diasporas examines literary expressions of allyship between Italian America and other diasporic communities in modern and contemporary US fiction. Rewriting the Anglo-American genre of the "Italian novel," authors like James Baldwin, Bernard Malamud, Carolina De Robertis, and Chang-rae Lee have disrupted misconceptions of Italian and Italian American identity while confronting Italians' own complicity with white racism. Likewise, Italian American authors from John Fante to Tina De Rosa have written in solidarity with Black, Chicanx, Filipinx, Jewish, Romani, and Irish diasporic communities on US shores, unsettling stereotypes and dissecting Italian America's history of flawed allyship across diasporas. Suzanne Manizza Roszak traces these gestures of literary solidarity; considers how they relate to the writers' critiques of toxic masculinity, antiqueerness, and socioeconomic injustice; and proposes interdiasporic allyship as a practice of reconciliation and healing.

"Intersecting Diasporas is a welcome contribution to the work of an increasing number of historians and literary and culture critics … who are reconceptualizing, expanding, and moving forward Italian American studies" — Italian American Review

Suzanne Manizza Roszak is Assistant Professor of English at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands.