Italian Americans on Screen: Challenging the Past, Re-Theorizing the Future reconsiders Robert Casillo's 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.
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.
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 Tucci's and Campbell Scott's Big Night Jonathan Cavallero Questioning the Italian-American Palooka: From Definition of Race to Disabilities in Avildsen's Rocky, Coogler's Creed, and Caple Jr's 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 Who's 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: Toronto's 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
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 Casillo's 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
