Abstract
This dissertation identifies a previously unrecognized tradition of 20th- and 21st-century Italian American literature that reflects on the process of “becoming white.” Since its inception in the 1970s, Italian American literary studies has primarily approached Italian American identity as racially marginalized. Whiteness studies scholars agree, however, that Italian Americans have been securely white since at least the years surrounding World War II. While aligning with this recognition of Italian American whiteness, I reach beyond the more common issues of when, where and how Italian Americans became white to ask these questions: What are the ethical, epistemological, and historiographic consequences of such a racial transformation? How have these consequences of whiteness impacted Italian American literature and literary studies? I argue that writing by John Fante, Jerre Mangione, Barbara Grizzutti Harrison, Dorothy Bryant, Rose Romano, and Rita Ciresi, as well as the hit HBO series The Sopranos, reveals some of the most compelling theorizations of Italian American whiteness. Engaging with the thought and art of this literary tradition, and drawing from scholarship at the intersection of race studies, ignorance studies, and trauma studies, Forgetting About It recognizes “becoming white” as a transformation in three regards: as a change in socioeconomic status; a change in the epistemological awareness of race; and a change in relation to the continuing history of racist, often anti-Black, violence. Along the way, this dissertation models a corrective reorientation of Italian American historiography newly able to register Italian American racial trauma both before and after World War II. It takes account of both the historically distant violence Italian Americans and their ancestors sustained as victims of white supremacy and the racial violence in which they have become implicated more recently as perpetrators.
Committee Chair
William Maxwell
Committee Members
Chris Eng; Melanie Micir; Rebecca Wanzo; Stephanie Li
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Author's Department
English and American Literature
Document Type
Dissertation
Date of Award
8-16-2024
Language
English (en)
DOI
https://doi.org/10.7936/vtpe-d665
Recommended Citation
Fressilli, Charlotte Sarah, "Forgetting About It: Italian American Narratives, Whiteness, and the Reorganization of Historical Memory" (2024). Arts & Sciences Theses and Dissertations. 3292.
The definitive version is available at https://doi.org/10.7936/vtpe-d665