Italian American Poetics of Place
An Environmental Perspective
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Fairleigh Dickinson University Press
Published:20th Nov '24
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This volume examines the significance of place in contemporary Italian American literature from an ecocritical perspective. It fills a gap in the theoretical/critical discourse on Italian American culture, whose concerns about environmental justice have been mostly overlooked. From mid-twentieth-century poets such as John Ciardi and Diane di Prima to late twentieth- and twenty-first-century fiction writers such as Carole Maso and Salvatore Scibona, the author combines Italian American literary criticism with the “spatial turn” that, over the last decades, has asserted the interpretive significance of place and the environment in literary texts. Contesting the prejudice that sees Italian American culture as distant from ecological concerns, the works examined show that such diasporic heritage has helped forge different modes of relationship and new forms of expression in contact with the ‘American’ land. Their relevance lies not so much in defining or redefining Italian American ethnicity but in forging ideas and futures beyond their immediate framework and subject matter. By focusing on the intersection of gender and ethnicity with local and transnational spaces and aesthetic practices, Italian American Poetics of Place contributes to the growing field of inquiry that explores the resources of the literary in laying the basis for more dialogic and inclusive forms of awareness and community with both the human and other-than-human.
Vellucci’s cutting-edge critical thinking builds upon a foundation of earlier work to advance the entire field of Italian American studies into the 21st century. Through her nuanced approach to the primary texts and her innovative application of historical and environmental cultural criticism, she has provided us with new ways of viewing canonical texts and brought overlooked and new poets into serious critical consideration. The result is a first-rate study that is a must read for Italian Diaspora studies and U.S. American Ethnic studies in general.
-- Fred L. Gardaphe, Distinguished Professor of English and Italian American Studies, Queens College/CUNY and John D. Calandra Italian American InstiISBN: 9781683934325
Dimensions: 229mm x 152mm x 21mm
Weight: 472g
208 pages