Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

[Review Of] Fred L. Gardaphe, Italian Signs, American Streets: The Evolution Of Italian American Narrative, Lucia Chiavola Birnbaum

Ethnic Studies Review

This indispensable interpretation of Italian American narrative literature can fruitfully be used in many ethnic and cultural programs. It is a study distinguished by familiarity with vernacular Italian American culture, as well as consciousness of the losses as well as gains in education in the dominant WASP culture. Trying to reconcile the difference between what Antonio Gramsci called the organic intellectual and the assimilated intellectual, Gardaphe has adopted "a culture-specific criticism that is sensitive to both Italian and American cultures."