Dining with the Authors: Food and Cultural Identity in Italian American Literature

Year 2023, Issue: 60, 43 - 60, 31.12.2023

Giulia Tarantino

Abstract

This manuscript explores the connection between cultural
identity and food in relation to the Italian American experience, placing
a particular emphasis on the metamorphosis underwent by the latter,
from comforting element to stigma and vice versa. The peculiarity
of this work lies in considering the topic from a literary perspective.
Through the analysis of the literary works produced by authors like
Helen Barolini, Maria Mazziotti Gillan, and Jerry Mangione, this work
reconstructs the way in which the perception of food has changed
from the first to the latest generations. As the works cited suggest, the
complex relationship between Italian Americans and food is not a newly
discovered subject of interest. Nevertheless, the studies around the
changes that this relationship has undergone are not exactly extensive.
For this reason, the manuscript aims to provide valuable evidence on
the crucial role played by food in defining Italian American identity.

Keywords

: Diasporic food, food and stigma, generational gap, hyphenated community, identity

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