Italian Americans in Film and Other Media

The Immigrant Experience from Silent Films to the Internet Age
2024
ISBN: 978-3-031-47210-7
Verlag: Springer International Publishing

Buch, Englisch, 353 Seiten, HC runder Rücken kaschiert, Format (B × H): 153 mm x 216 mm, Gewicht: 593 g

Reihe: Italian and Italian American Studies

Italian Americans in Film and Other Media examines the representation of the Italian immigrant experience from D.W. Griffith’s Biograph Italian Dramas (1908-1913) to the present day. Building on the editors’ previous volume Italian Americans in Film, this collection broadens their scope to address marginalized aspects of Italian Americanness, including the work of women directors and depictions of same-sex relationships. The book consists of three parts. Part I, “The Immigrant Experience”, focuses on feature films and is divided into two sections: “Silent Films” (which analyses some of Griffith’s early films and Barker’s The Italian, 1915), and “Revising Gender Perspectives”, which includes chapters focusing on single films – such as Dmytryk’s Christ in Concrete (1949), De Michiel’s Tarantella (1995), and Bonifacio’s Amexicano (2007) – and survey essays that discuss the Italian American ‘celluloid closet’ and some of Savoca’s films. Part II, “Italian Americans in Other Media”, offers a wide range of essays informed by different approaches that investigate the immigrant experience in terms of transmediality and transnationality. The types of media examined in this section include television and graphic novels as well as puppetry, Instagram, and Internet memes. Part III contains interviews with Italian American scholars, movie directors, and performers. Together, the contributions to this collection demonstrate the vitality, mutation, and persistence of Italian Americanness in visual media.

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

Orsitto, Fulvio

Fioretti, Daniele

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Theater- und Filmwissenschaft | Andere Darstellende Künste Filmwissenschaft, Fernsehen, Radio

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Chapter 1/Introduction Daniele Fioretti and Fulvio Orsitto.- PART I -THE IMMIGRANT EXPERIENCE:Silent Films.- Chapter 2 Races to the Rescue in an Ethnic Urban Milieu: D.W. Griffith and the Biograph Italian Dramas Irene Lottini.- Chapter 3The Italian (1915) and the Representation of Italian Immigrants in Silent American Cinema Bernard Kuhn Revising Gender and Ethnic Perspectives.- Chapter 4: Italianness and Foundational Masculinity in Edward Dmytryk’s Rendition of Pietro Di Donato’s Christ in Concrete Gloria Pastorino.- Chapter 5 A Sting from the Past: Femininity and Ethnic Roots in Helen De Michiel’s Tarantella (1995) Daniele Fioretti.- Chapter 6: The Celluloid Closet: Sex, Power, and Coming Out Repression of the Italian American Closet in Nunzio’s Second Cousin (1994), Kiss Me, Guido (1997), and Mambo Italiano (2003) Ryan Calabretta-Sajder.- Chapter 7From True Love (1989) to Union Square (2011): Recovering the Exploded Family in Nancy Savoca’s Films Gloria Pastorino.- Chapter 8: A Realistic Tale of Improbable Friendship. Notes on Matthew Bonifacio’s Amexicano (2007) Claudia Peralta and Fulvio Orsitto.- PART II - ITALIAN AMERICANS IN OTHER MEDIA.- Chapter 9: Italian American Gangsters Taking on a New Line of Work in Luc Besson’s The Family (2013) Rosetta Caponetto Giuliani.- Chapter 10: The Transnational Puppet: From Italy and Back Federico Pacchioni.- Chapter 11: Comfortable and Uncomfortable Fictions: Italian Americans in the First Decades of Television Fulvio Orsitto.- Chapter 12: Looking Back, Moving Forward: Italian Americans on Television from the 1970s to the1990s Fulvio Orsitto.- Chapter 13: Italian Americans on Television in the New Millennium: From Small to Smaller Screen(s) Fulvio Orsitto.- Chapter 14: The Goddess and the Huntress: Diana and DC’sHelena Bertinelli Felice Italo Beneduce.- Chapter 15: CNN’s Searching for Italy: Stanley Tucci as Foodways Icon Alan J. Gravano.- Chapter 16: Chef/Cook, Influencer, Mixologist, Travel Host: Stanley Tucci as Everyman Alan J. Gravano.- Chapter 17: An Unlimited Memeiosis of The Godfather: Diachronic and Synchronic Observations of a Pervasive and Ubiquitous Meme Anthony Dion Mitzel.- PART III - INTERVIEWS.- Chapter 18: Interview with Helen De Michiel Daniele Fioretti.- Chapter 19: Interview with Tony Vitale Daniele Fioretti.- Chapter 20: Interview with Michela Musolino Daniele Fioretti.- Chapter 21: Interview with Anthony Julian Tamburri Ryan Calabretta-Sajder.

Über Autor(innen)

Daniele Fioretti is Associate Teaching Professor of Italian at Miami University, USA. He is the author of Utopia and Dystopia in Postwar Italian Literature (2017) and Carte di fabbrica. La narrativa industriale in Italia 1934-1989 (2013). He co-edited the book Italian Americans in Film: Establishing and Challenging Italian American Identities (2022).

Fulvio Orsitto is Director of the Georgetown University campus in Fiesole, Italy. He has published more than thirty essays and book chapters on Italian and Italian American literature and cinema, and has edited and co-edited ten volumes, including Pasolini: American Perspectives (2015), TOTalitarian ARTs: The Visual Arts, Fascism(s) and Mass-society (2017), and Italian Americans in Film: Establishing and Challenging Italian American Identities (2022).