Italian Americans in Film by Daniele Fioretti

Italian Americans in Film by Daniele Fioretti

This book examines how Italian Americans have been represented in cinema, from the depiction of Italian migration in New Orleans in the 1890s (Vendetta) to the transition from first- to second-generation immigrants (Ask the Dust), and from the establishment of the stereotype of the Italian American gangster (Little Caesar, Scarface) to its re-definition (Mean Streets), along with a peculiar depiction of Italian American masculinity (Marty, Raging Bull). For many years, Italian migration studies in the United States have commented on the way cinema contributed to the creation of an identifiable Italian American identity. More recently, scholars have recognized the existence of a more nuanced plurality of Italian American identities that reflects social and historical elements, class backgrounds, and the relationship with other ethnic minorities. The second part of the book challenges the most common stereotypes of Italian Americanness: food (BigNight) and Mafia, deconstructing the criminal tropes that have contributed to shaping the perception of Italian-American mafiosi in The Funeral, Goodfellas, Donnie Brasco, and the first two chapters of the Godfather trilogy. At the crossroads of the fields of Italian Culture, Italian American Culture, Film Studies, and Migration Studies, Italian Americans in Film is written not only for undergraduate and graduate students but also for scholars who teach courses on Italian American Cinema and Visual Culture.

“Italian Americans in Film is a timely addition.. . It will appeal to students and scholars of Italian American cinema and culture, and readers with varying degrees of familiarity with this topic will appreciate the chronological list of films and TV series cited at the end of each chapter.” (Aria Zan Cabot, Italica, Vol 101 (2), 2024) 

“Indeed, Italian American cinema has in many ways held an outsized space in academic studies of Italian American cultural production. … The student of Italian American cinema will also find helpful the extensive bibliography that concludes each essay, as well as the additional section of films cited, which can help the reader move beyond the works that are the focus of the chapters and widen their familiarity with cinematic texts that have yet to become part of the canon.” (Rebecca Bauman, Italian American Review, Vol. 14 (2), 2024) 

Daniele Fioretti teaches Italian American culture and Italian cinema, language, and culture at Miami University, USA. He is the author of Utopia and Dystopia in Postwar Italian Literature – Pasolini, Calvino, Sanguineti, Volponi (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017). He has also written Carte di fabbrica: la narrativa industriale in Italia 1934-1989 (2013) as well as articles and book chapters on cinema and literature.

Fulvio Orsitto is the Director of the Georgetown University study center in Fiesole, Italy. He has published more than thirty essays and book chapters on Italian and Italian American cinema and Italian Literature. His book publications include the edited volumes The Other and the Elsewhere in Italian Culture (2011) and Cinema and Risorgimento (2012), the co-authored manual Film and Education. Capturing Bilingual Communities (2014), and seven other co-edited volumes.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9783031064678
ISBN 10	3031064674
Title	Italian Americans in Film
Author	Daniele Fioretti
Series	Italian And Italian American Studies
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Springer International Publishing AG
Year published	2023-12-01
Number of pages	283
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.