Italian Americans on Screen: Challenging the Past, Re-Theorizing the Future reconsiders Robert Casillos definition of Italian-American cinema as appl[ ying] to works by Italian-American directors who treat Italian-American subjects to expand this classification. Contributors situate Italian-American cinema and media within the contemporary and intersectional debates about ethnic identity, including race, class, gender, and sexuality studies. This book links past scholarship to theoretical underpinnings with new hermeneutical approaches in television and film to establish new interpretations concerning Italian Americans on screen. Scholars of film studies, media studies, cultural studies, and sociology will find this book particularly useful.
Arvustused
Both building upon and moving beyond established critical paradigms, Italian Americans on Screen promotes crucial new lines of media inquiry. It legitimizes the contributions of non-Italian American filmmakers; touches upon long-ignored television programs, century-old newspapers and new media programs; and delves into recent exchanges between Italian and American media cultures. This collection is a fundamental (re)starting point for future research. -- Giorgio Bertellini, University of Michigan Departing from Robert Casillos strict-constructionist definition of an Italian-American cinema and media studies (an Italian-American director on an Italian-American subject), Ryan Calabretta-Sajder, Alan Gravano, and their many contributors have boldly expanded across blurred boundaries, generic, interdisciplinary, intersectional, and historical. Their innovative methods and wealth of fresh content will make this volume itself the marker of a new moment in Italian-American Studies. -- John Paul Russo, University of Miami
Introduction
Ryan Calabretta-Sajder & Alan Gravano
Part I: What is Italian-American Cinema?
What is Italian about Sofia Coppola? Tracing Ethnicity in Third-Generation
Feminist Cinema
Colleen Ryan
Edible Ethnicity: Italian-American Representations, Cinematic Style, and
Ethnic Commodification in Stanley Tuccis and Campbell Scotts Big Night
Jonathan Cavallero
Questioning the Italian-American Palooka: From Definition of Race to
Disabilities in Avildsens Rocky, Cooglers Creed, and Caple Jrs Creed II
Alan Gravano
Part II: Blurring the Lines between Italian and American on Screen
The Italian Pursuit of Hollywood
Mary Ann McDonald Carolan
Comedies of Identity: Italian Cinema and Television Narrating Italian
Americans
Giuseppe Sorrentino
Part III: Re-Viewing Italian Americana on Screen: Reception and Reflections
Whos Laughing at Whom? Masculinity, Humor, and Italian American Lives on
Mainstream Television: Friends
Ryan Calabretta-Sajder
Tony Soprano Meets Furio Giunta: Italian Americans and the Real Italians in
The Sopranos
Francesco Chianese
Part IV: Italian Newspapers, Italian Cinema, and 2.0 Media
Serializing Italian American Futurities
Sarah Salter
Cinema Paradiso: Torontos Italian Language Cinemas and Distribution
Networks
Jessica Leonora Whitehead and Paul S. Moore
Conversing about National Attributes Online: The Case of Italy and the U.S.
Giacomo Sproccati
Index
About the Contributors
Ryan Calabretta-Sajder is assistant professor of Italian at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville.
Alan J. Gravano is assistant professor and writing center director at Rocky Mountain University.
