Return Narratives

Ethnic Space in Late-Twentieth-Century Greek American and Italian American Literature

By (author) Theodora D. Patrona

Publication date:

29 August 2017

Length of book:

208 pages

Publisher

Fairleigh Dickinson University Press

Dimensions:

237x161mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9781611479942

This book is a comparative study of six Italian American and Greek American literary works written in the three last decades of the 20th century and examined in pairs. Based on the common theme of the authors' return, either metaphorical or literal to the country of origin and its culture, Return Narratives explores the common motifs of mythology, ritual, and storytelling where the third generation writers resort to in their quest for self-definition. With a common historical and cultural background in the old neighboring countries, Greece and Italy, and a similar reception in the new world facilitating a comparative approach, the ethnic writers of the two literatures, clearly envisage ethnic space as a site of resilience and empowerment.

Acknowledgements
Introduction
Part I: (De)Mystified Ethnic Space: Novels of the Seventies
Chapter 1 The Return to the Self and the Mystified Homeland: Daphne Athas’s
Cora (1978)
Chapter 2 Ethnic Space, Umbertina Women (1979), and the Voyage to Self-
Definition
Part II: Persephone Returns Home: A Greek American and an Italian American Work of the Nineties
Chapter 3Mythic Wanderings in Catherine Temma Davidson’s The PriestFainted (1998)Chapter 4 Italian-American Persephone in a Sicilian Setting: Susan Caperna
Lloyd’s No Pictures in My Grave (1992)
Part III: Ethnic “History” and Storytelling: Voicing the Male
Chapter 5 Reared by Myth and Folklore: Stratis Haviaras’s When the Tree Sings
(1979)
Chapter 6 Ethnic Fables of Social Justice: Tony Ardizzone’s In the Garden of
Papa Santuzzu (1999)
Closings and Openings
Works Cited

Return Narratives marks a beginning point in the comparative study of Greek American and Italian American literature, particularly with regard to what they can tell us about ethnic self-identification and space. Patrona’s detailed close readings of the six texts illuminate useful areas of thought and illustrate the limitations imposed on the characters in their journey of ethnic identity creation.