ISO title
EHRC

Cultures on the move: Italy and the USA

Funded by the John Fell Fund

Cultures on the Move: Italy and the USA

*Publication Announcement*

We are delighted to announce that Legenda (Oxford) has agreed to take our proposed co-edited volume Cultural Change Through Language and Narrative: Italy and the USA forward for publication provisionally in 2018.

Lay Summary

Recent developments in the fields of migration studies and world/global history have opened new avenues to the study of cultural history through a transnational perspective. However, an area which still remains under-developed concerns the study of the relation between human mobility and cultural change. The aim of this project is to produce a cultural history of the interaction between Italian and US culture during the 20th century. The transnational phenomenon of Italian migration to/ and return from/ the USA together with the influence of US culture on Italian society are at the centre of our study. We will look at the processes of cultural change, starting from a selection of case studies. We propose to focus on two areas of knowledge, which are not only central to the development of human culture, but are of primary importance in defining the identity of human communities.

i. Language: e.g. writing and orality.

ii. Narrative: e.g. literature (whether oral, written or staged) and cinema.

The research project will be developed in two stages. During Stage 1, three case studies will be completed in order to gain in-depth understanding of the process of cultural change. They concentrate on linguistic influence, oral literature and early cinema.

Together, they will enrich and inform the major research project which will provide the framework of Stage 2. To support the second stage, we are envisaging an application for either a Research Project Grant from the Leverhulme Trust or a Research Grant - Standard Route from the AHRC.

Research objectives and proposed outcomes

Introduction

This application benefits from the experience derived from two externally-funded projects recently completed at Italian Studies at Oxford, both co-led by this project’s leading applicant. The first concentrated on the representation of migration to Italy in literature, cinema and the media. Leverhulme-funded, it developed through a number of workshops in Britain and abroad (USA, Egypt and Italy) and produced an online database and a volume publication. The second project was a smaller, AHRC-funded network aimed at the discussion of the theoretical framework for a longue-durée study of the relationship between cultural change and human mobility in and through the Italian peninsula. The group considered two possible approaches: an encyclopedic one – as a method but also through a critique of recent attempts in that direction (Corti and Sanfilippo 2009; Cavalli Sforza 2009-10); and a methodology based on the study of cultural change around a single artefact which marked its presence in Italy across its long-term history. In the end, the project did not produce a consensual model; however, it nonetheless constituted a useful step towards the formulation of our current approach.

The specific aim of our project is to produce a history of the interaction between Italian and US culture during the 20th century. The transnational phenomenon of migration to/ and return from/ the USA together with the influence of US culture on Italian society are at the centre of our study. We will look at the processes of cultural change, starting from a selection of case studies. We propose to focus on two areas of knowledge, which are not only central to the development of human culture, but are of primary importance in defining the identity of human communities.

i. Language: e.g. writing and orality

ii. Narrative: e.g. literature (whether oral, written or staged) and cinema.

A comparative approach – i.e., looking at cultural change in different areas of human knowledge – has been identified as a key step by Hoerder (2002) and Cavalli Sforza (2010), who both suggest comparative research as a key to an understanding of the complexity of cultural change.

This research project will be developed in two stages. During Stage 1, three case studies will be completed in order to gain in-depth understanding of the process of cultural change with regard to the specific case of Italy and USA. Together, they will enrich and inform the major research project which will provide the framework of Stage 2.

Stage 1

Stage one will focus on:

a) The development of three case studies.

b) An international conference

c) Three article publications

d) Application for a major grant

The three case studies are:

1. The Linguistic, Social and Cultural Impact of American English on 20th-Century Italy. By Dr Alessandro Carlucci (FMML)

Scholarly views on the impact of the English language on the development of Italian range from apocalyptic fears about the threats that the absorption of English words and structures poses to the vitality of the Italian language, to far less alarming positions presenting English influences as normal – if not negligible – manifestations of linguistic contact. Recent work has detailed the historical impact of the English language on specific aspects of Italian grammar and vocabulary (e.g. Cartago 1994; Moss 1995; Sullam Calimani 2003; Bombi 2005; Furiassi 2008, Renzi 2012). This case study will produce a comprehensive overview of the phonological, morphological, syntactical, semantic and lexical aspects which have been most persuasively claimed to reveal English influences, and will assess the arguments for and against this claim for each of the aspects considered. As part of this assessment, the case study will also aim to: a) establish how and to what extent the influence of US English can be distinguished from that of British English (drawing on the distinction in Italian scholarship between angloamericanismo and anglicismo); and b) identify the main channels through which US influences reached 20th-century Italy. In addition, this case study will explore the cultural implications of the impact of the English language on Italian society. In particular, it will describe the evolution of the attitudes towards English – especially American English – in 20th-century Italy (Pulcini 1997); and it will lay the groundwork for an analysis of how and to what extent linguistic influences – such as the acceptance by Italian speakers of the phrase fare sesso, based on English to have sex and partly replacing Italian fare (al)l’amore ‘to make love’ – can be linked to wider processes of cultural change. The socio-linguistic and cultural aspects will therefore illuminate each other, leading to a fully historical account rather than a merely linguistic one. However, while the linguistic investigation will be completed during Stage 1, the socio-cultural component of this case study will only be sketched out, with the aim of completing it as part of the major research project, once more empirical and theoretical information on cultural change has been drawn together from the various disciplines involved.

Another set of research questions which will be addressed mainly in Stage 2 concerns the sociology of the English language in 20th-century Italy, more precisely the perception of fluency in English as a tool to gain access to material and non-material resources. In fact, recent scholarship has suggested that in non-English-speaking countries mastery of this language has often functioned as a factor in perpetuating – rather than alleviating - inequalities due to family background, regional origin and social class (Ricento 2015). The study will focus on the sociological characteristics of those Italians who reached a confident command of English, and on their linguistic and cultural perception of the differences between Britain and the USA. A historical perspective will allow the assessment of the increasing role of American English and US lifestyle as a vehicle for English language learning.

2. Old Stories in a New Continent: The Fairy-Tale Tradition between Italy and the USA. By Dr Matthew Reza (FMML)

Folkloric research on migrant Italian communities to the United States during the late nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century has focused on a wide spectrum of topics and issues, ranging from cultural rites such as marriage, religion and death, to how Italian and dialects change, and how communities from different areas of Italy interact in the United States. Indeed Malpezzi and Clements (1992) argue that regionalism (and by extension linguistic variance) is a central factor in the creation of Italian American culture.

A subset of Italian folklore that has received relatively little critical attention is the fairytale (two important exceptions being Bianco 1974 and Mathias and Raspa 1985), particularly in the context of its importance as a central part of oral culture and identity in Italian communities in the United States. The majority of Italian immigrants were working-class and semi-literate, and fairytales were one of the few literary forms which travelled across the Atlantic. Despite this, fairytales, as an oral means of storytelling, have been on the margins of mainstream, elite and written Italian culture as much as in Italian American studies (Sciorra 2011). The purpose of this project is to bring to light the cultural value of the fairytale tradition and other forms of oral narrative in their transnational move from Italy to the USA. Using a select corpus drawn from published and archival material in Italy and the United States, this case study will focus on fairytales, as they moved from different Italian communities across the Atlantic, in order to understand their role in the cultural life of the migrant, and as a yardstick with which to measure how migrants remained close to, or distanced themselves from, their culture of origin. This study will benefit from a recent scholarly contribution by Aprile (2000) on fairytale traditions across different regions of Italy. The research work will engage with published collections of folk- and fairytales in Italian American contexts, together with archival material, both oral and written. In Stage 2, adopting a more sociological approach, this study will tackle the so far untouched research question of the importance of the Italian/regional fairytale tradition in the cultural journey of migrants to the USA, comprehensive of second and third-generation Italian Americans. Archival sources in the US include The American Folklife Centre at The Library of Congress, the Center for Migration Studies (NY), the New York Public Library, and the New York Folklore Society. In Italy, two centres in Rome which house collections on Italian emigration and popular traditions are the Museo nazionale emigrazione Italiana and the Museo della tradizioni popolari italiane.

3. A New Narrative Art: Early Cinema in Italy and the USA. By Professor Guido Bonsaver (FMML).

Cultural change in this specific case has to be understood in a tripartite fashion: as the result of the arrival of cinema as a new form of narrative art; as the influence of early Italian films on US film productions; and as the influence of the US film industry on the Italian one, considered as a first instance of the “Americanization” of Italian culture. Developed in Stage 2, this case study will become part of a fully ledged monograph on the relationship between the Italian and US film industry throughout the 20th century.

Early Italian cinema is traditionally thought to have played an important role in the development of long feature films. However, its relationship with US cinema went beyond questions of form. Early Italian films were influential in the use of ancient historic themes. Italy was perceived as a repository of classical culture, and this simple notion should be problematized once we explore in more depth the production, distribution and influence of these films. The plot of The Last Days of Pompei (1913) for example, was based on a novel by British writer E. Bulwer Lytton. Furthermore, some Italian productions were created following the directives of one of the biggest US film producers and distributors at the time, George Kleine. The question of the particular success of these early films needs to be studied both in terms of the history of early cinema and as part of the process of the use of ancient history – particularly ancient Rome – in order to foster elements of national identity in both Italy and the USA (Bertellini 1999). The elaboration of Roman history in the making of US national identity has been studied in depth in relation to the figure of Julius Caesar (Wyke 2012). Archival funds related to film production companies and distributors in Italy and the USA allow for a reconstruction: a) of the strategies and rationale with which Italian film companies approached the US market; b) of the use of ancient history as a source of values to be projected as exemplary/myth-making in early 20th century Italy and the USA; c) of the influence of the US distribution industry in the production of Italian films.

This case study will concentrate on the production and distribution of two key Italian films, M. Caserini and E. Rodolfi’s The Last Days of Pompei (1913) and G. Pastrone’s Cabiria (1914). It will explore the archival funds related to their production companies held at the Museo Nazionale del Cinema in Turin, and, in order to understand their interaction with US cinema, it will complement archival research with a study of the George Kleine Collection at Washington’s Library of Congress and the D.W. Griffith Papers  held at New York’s Museum of Modern Art.

b) An international conference to be held in Oxford in September 2016. Comprising:

- Presentation and discussion of Stage 1 case studies: the three researchers to present their work and discuss its implications within the bigger picture of the major research project;

- Presentation of other papers related to the three areas of study: a call for papers will be circulated in March 2016;

- Invited scholars: three speakers will be invited to address, respectively, one of the three areas at the centre of the study: language, literature and cinema.

c) Three article publications: each case study will be finalised in the shape of a scholarly article to be submitted to a peer-reviewed journal.

d) Application for a major grant: during the summer of 2016 the research group will concentrate on a multi-disciplinary major grant application, either a Research Project Grant from the Leverhulme Trust or a Research Grant – Standard Route from the AHRC.

Stage 2

The second stage will consist of a three-year international research project. The aims of this project are:

- International Conference to be held in 2019 (preceded by two workshops in 2017 and 2018).

- Publications: 1 co-edited volume plus one single- and one co-authored monograph. Other publications will stem from the work of individual scholars involved in the project.

- Website: the creation of an interactive website addressed to scholars and to the wider public.

- School project: the Italian case will be used as a springboard for the discussion amongst secondary school students of cultural change and the impact of human mobility.

- Documentary: using already developed contacts and experience, the three PIs will produce a proposal for a documentary based on the project’s main thrust.

Selected bibliography:

Aprile, R. (2000), Indice delle fiabe popolari italiane di magia, 2 vols, Florence: Olschki.

Bertellini, G. (1999), ‘Epica spettacolare e splendore del vero. L’influenza del cinema storico italiano in America (1908-1915)’, in Brunetta G. P. (ed.), Storia del cinema mondiale, 6 vols (vol. 2), Turin: Einaudi, 227-265.

Bianco, C. (1974), The Two Rosetos, Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Bombi, R. (2005), La linguistica del contatto. Tipologie di anglicismi nell’italiano contemporaneo, Rome: il Calamo.

Cartago, G. (1994), ‘L’apporto inglese’, in L. Serianni and P. Trifone (eds), Storia della lingua italiana, Vol. III: Le altre lingue, Turin: Einaudi: 721-750.

Cavalli Sforza L. (2010), L’evoluzione della cultura, Turin: Codice (first ed. 2004).

Cavalli Sforza L. (ed.) (2009-10), La cultura italiana, 12 vols, Turin: UTET.

Corti P. and M. Sanfilippo (eds) (2009), Migrazioni, vol. 24 of Storia d’Italia: Annali (various eds), Turin: Einaudi.

Furiassi, C. (2008), ‘Non-Adapted Anglicisms in Italian: Attitudes, Frequency Counts, and Lexicographic Implications’, in R. Fischer and H. Pułaczewska (eds), Anglicisms in Europe: Linguistic Diversity in a Global Context, Newcastle: Cambridge.

Hoerder, D. (2002), Cultures in Contact, Durham: Duke University Press.

Malpezzi, F.M., and W.M. Clements (1992), Italian-American Folklore, Little Rock: August House.

Manning P. (2005), Migration in World History, London and New York: Psychology Press.

Mathias, E., and R. Raspa (1985), Italian Folktales in America: The Verbal Art of an Immigrant Woman, Detroit: Wayne State University Press.

Moss, H. (1995), ‘Pseudoanglicisms in Italian: Concept and Usage’, Italian Studies, 50: 123-138.

Muscio G. (2004), Piccole Italie, grandi schermi: Scambi cinematografici tra Italia e Stati Uniti 1895-1945, Rome: Bulzoni.

Pedullà, G. (ed.) (2011-12), Atlante della letteratura italiana, 3 vols, Turin: Einaudi.

Pulcini, V. (1997), ‘Attitudes toward the Spread of English in Italy’, World Englishes, 16, 1: 77-85.

Renzi, L. (2012), Come cambia la lingua. L’italiano in movimento, Bologna: Il Mulino.

Ricento, T. (ed.) (2015), Language Policy and Political Economy: English in a Global Context, Oxford: OUP.

Sciorra, J. (ed.) (2011), Italian Folk: Vernacular Culture in Italian-American Lives, New York: Fordham University Press.

Sullam Calimani, A.V. (ed.) (2003), Italiano e inglese a confronto: problemi di interferenza linguistica, Florence: Cesati.

Wyke, M. (2012) Caesar in the USA, Berkley: University of California Press.