Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611

  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Humor and Irony in Italian American Culture

Humor and Irony in Italian American Culture

Gardaphé, Fred L.

Hardcover

Series: Humor in America

Literary CriticismFiction Anthologies

Currently unavailable to order

ISBN10: 027110242X
ISBN13: 9780271102429
Publisher: Penn State University Press
Pages: 250
Language: English

Humor and Irony in Italian American Culture reveals a rich but understudied comedic tradition: the ways US Americans of Italian descent have used humor to preserve their heritage, project their fears, and negotiate their relationship to mainstream American culture.

The book historicizes, documents, and interprets humor across literature, music, film, political cartoons, and stand-up comedy from the late nineteenth century to the present. It begins with the dreams and anxieties of Italian immigrants, examining how they were caricatured in the writings of Henry James, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Mark Twain, among others, as well as in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century cartoons. It then turns to performers and writers such as Eduardo Migliaccio, George Panetta, and Augusto Lentricchia, who used humor to defend Italian immigrant identity against stereotype and assimilationist pressure. Subsequent chapters trace the development of humor and irony in the work of the children and grandchildren of immigrants, before considering the media renaissance that began in the 1990s, when Italian Americans increasingly shaped their own representations in mass culture.

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