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Seminar Series in Italian American
Studies
Monday, September 20, 2004 Beverly Gage, Yale University “The 1920 Wall Street Explosion: Terrorism
and Italian Anarchism in the Era of Sacco and Vanzetti” On September 16, 1920, a horse-drawn cart
exploded at the corner of Wall and Broad streets in New York, killing 39
bystanders. Until 1995, that death toll made it the worst domestic terrorist
attack in U.S. history. Beverly
Gage's talk will explore the role of Italian anarchists in the United States'
long history of terrorism and examine the Wall Street explosion's impact on
contemporary politics. Wednesday, October 27, 2004 Eugenia Paulicelli, Queens College “Fashion
and Identity in Italy in the 1930s” Fascism in 1930s Italy dominated more than
just politics – it spilled over into modes of dress. Mussolini’s regime choreographed
people’s allegiance with the intent of creating a new national consciousness.
Women, in particular, were manipulated through fashion ideals to create an
“authentic” Italian femininity.
Eugenia Paulicelli will explore the subtle yet sinister changes to the
seemingly innocuous practices of everyday dress and show why they were such a
concern for the state. She will
also demonstrate how these developments impacted the global dominance of
Italian fashion today. Thursday, November 18, 2004 Philip Cannistraro, Queens College, and Gerald Meyer, Hostos
Community College “The Lost World of Italian American Radicalism” Radicalism has had a powerful but largely unacknowledged
influence in the Italian American community. The Lost World of Italian
American Radicalism: Politics, Labor, and Culture, published by Praeger
(2003), brings together 16 selections that restore to Italian American
history the radical experience that has long remained suppressed, but that
nevertheless helped shape both the Italian American community and the
American left. The authors will
discuss the significance of this work, as well as the contemporary
significance of Italian American radicalism. Monday,
December 13, 2004 Gina M. Miele,
The Coccia Institute, Montclair State University “‘La novella nun e' bella, se sopra nun ci
si rappella.’ The Art of Storytelling from Luigi Capuana
to Italo Calvino” In recent years literary folktales have
become regarded, as they were at their inception, as a genre of social,
national, and moral commentary.
Yet, the contributions of Luigi Capuana and Italo Calvino towards the
reemergence of a genre considered dead in Italy have been denied critical
attention. In the fairy tale
collections of Capuana and Calvino, raconteur and audience communicate with,
and through, the page; their voices move through time, gathering remnants of
their collective past from the tales and finding in the process a sense of
community. Like silk, tales are
spun, woven and rewoven with ancient and contemporary threads and then
disseminated in written and oral form.
Gina Miele’s talk will examine how Italian folktales evolve, along
with the people who recount them, over the dual expanses of time and space. Tuesday, February 22, 2005 Luigi Fontanella, SUNY Stony Brook The Experience of Italian American Writers
in the United States Luigi Fontanella explores the multifaceted
phenomenon of Italian American literature. This experience represents an important component in the
history of Italian literature produced outside of Italy and of twentieth
century American literature. The
lecture will present a panorama of the work of some transplanted Italian
American writers, investigating the socio-cultural phenomenon of Italian
emigration to the U.S., and the theoretical and methodological issues
concerning a “literature of expatriation.” Tuesday, March 15, 2005 Sal Salerno, Ridgewater College Unraveling the Mysteries of Paterson’s
Italian Anarchist Community in the Wake of the Red Scare On February 14, 1920, 100 Federal Bureau
of Investigation agents, assisted by members of the American Legion, raided
the homes of 29 Italian anarchists living in Paterson, New Jersey. These immigrants were part of
L'Era Nuova, a group affiliated with the Industrial Workers of the World and
a center of the international anarchist community since the turn of the
nineteenth century. While
researchers believed the federal government destroyed the files connected to
L'Era Nuova, a cache of these records was recently located. Sal Salerno’s talk will focus on the
importance of this discovery and the questions it raises for understanding
Italian American radicalism. Thursday, April 14, 2005 Heather Hartley, Pennsylvania State
University “Linciati: Lynchings of Italians in
America” Heather Hartley will present and discuss Linciati,
her video about the story of prejudice and violence against Italian
immigrants and Italian Americans in the late 19th and early 20th
centuries. Her documentary examines the social, economic and historical
causes of lynching of Italians and links this brutality to violence
experienced by other ethnic and racial minorities in the United States.
Linciati presents the collision of the hopes, dreams, and traditions
of Italian immigrants with the economic and political changes and
long-standing racial hostilities of post-Civil War America. Monday,
May 16, 2005 John Cicala, Mount Saint Mary College “The Folk Sculpture of Detroit’s Silvio
Barile” Silvio Barile immigrated to Detroit from
his native village of Ausonia (Campania) in the early 1950s. As a self-styled
philosopher, moralist, and artist, Barile has definite beliefs about life in
America which he expresses through large cement sculptures he crafts and places
in the gardens around his pizzeria and home. These works feature family members, Ausonia landmarks,
Roman and Italian historical figures, and Detroit and American pop cultural
icons. Folklorist John Cicala
will discuss Barile’s decorated and painted creations and the ways in which
the artist negotiates his conservative contadino values within
contemporary urban America. All events are
free. Lectures begin at
6:30 PM. John D. Calandra
Italian American Institute 25 W. 43rd St., 17th
floor (between 5th & 6th Avenues) Manhattan Seating is
limited. Please call (212)
642-2094 for further information. The
Calandra Institute is a university institute under the aegis of Queens
College [Return to the Academic & Cultural Programs page.] |
