Abstract
This quote is an excerpt from an interview that is part of a study on Italian American women, identity and food, which is the focus of this chapter. The interviewer is Carol, whom you will hear more about later, and she is in a room with the interviewee, Donna, and Donna’s friend Paula. (All names of interviewees are pseudonyms). I begin this chapter with the words of one of the women in order to set the stage, to introduce and contextualize this study. The central themes of this study are authenticity and Italian imaginary.
Carol: Do you think there is a more authentic or Italian version [of this recipe for “Italian meatballs”]?
Donna: Hmmm, well I’m sure today there could be. Only because of everybody watching the fat content. And trying to eat healthier, you know?
Carol: So you think it would be, they might modify the ingredients?
Donna: Yeah, I’m not sure Italians would do it, but maybe German. Or, you know, Irish might use like, turkey instead of … [hamburger].
Carol: Ugh! It gives me chills!
Carol, Paula & Donna: [laughter].
Donna: I know! Me too!
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Banks, I. (2000). Hair matters: Beauty, power, and black women’s consciousness . New York: New York University Press.
Bona, M. (1999). Claiming a tradition: Italian American women writers . Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press.
Combahee River Collective (1977/2005). A Black feminist statement. In W.K. Kolmar and F. Bartkowski (Eds.), Feminist theory: A reader (2nd ed.) (pp. 311–316). Boston: McGraw Hill.
Coontz, S. (1992). The way we never were: American families and the nostalgia trap . New York: Basic Books.
Crenshaw, K.W. (1995). Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of color. In K.W. Crenshaw, N. Gotanda, G. Peller & K. Thomas (Eds.), Critical race theory: The key writings that formed the movement (pp. 359–383). New York: The New Press.
DeSalvo, L. (2004). Crazy in the kitchen: Food, feuds, and forgiveness in an Italian American family . New York: Bloomsbury.
DeSalvo L. & Giunta, E. (Eds.) (2002). The milk of almonds: Italian American women writers on food an culture . New York: The Feminist Press.
Dottolo, A.L. & Stewart, A.J. (2008). “Don’t ever forget now, you’re a Black man in America”: Intersections of race, class and gender in encounters with the police. Sex Roles, 59, pp. 350–364.
Espín, O.M. (1997 ). Latina realities: Essays on healing, migration, and sexuality. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Gabaccia, D. & Iacovetta, F. (2002). Women, gender, and transnational lives: Italian workers of the world . Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Gambino, R. (1974). Blood of my blood: The dilemma of the Italian-Americans. New York: Anchor Books.
Giunta, E. (2002). Writing with an accent: Contemporary Italian American women authors. New York: Palgrave.
Guglielmo, T.A. (2003). White on arrival: Italians, race, color and power in Chicago, 1890–1945. New York: Oxford University Press.
Guglielmo, J. (2010). Living the revolution: Italian women’s resistance and radicalism in New York City, 1880–1945 . Columbia, SC: The University of North Carolina Press.
Jenkins, R. (1996). Social identity . New York: Routledge.
Magliocco, Sabina. (1993). Playing with food: The negotiation of identity in the ethnic display event by Italian Americans in Clinton, Indiana. In L. delGiudice (Ed.), Studies in Italian American Folklore (pp. 107–126). Logan, UT: Utah State University Press.
Mangione, J. & Morreale, B. (1992). La storia: Five centuries of the Italian American experience. New York: Harper Perennial.
Marecek, J. (1995). Gender, politics, and psychology’s ways of knowing. American Psychologist, 50 (3), pp. 162–163.
Nenga, S.K. (2003). Social class and structures of feeling in women’s childhood memories of clothing, food, and leisure. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 32 (2), pp. 167–199.
Scott, J.W. (2001). Fantasy echo: History and the construction of identity. Critical Inquiry, 27, pp. 284–304.
Tajfel, H. (1981). Human groups and social categories: Studies in social psychology . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Thompson, B. (1994/2001). “A Way outa no way”: Eating problems among African-American, Latina, and white women. In L. Richardson, V. Taylor & N. Whittier (Eds.), Feminist frontiers, 5 (pp. 413–421). New York: McGraw Hill.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2015 Andrea L. Dottolo and Carol Dottolo
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Dottolo, A.L., Dottolo, C. (2015). Legacies of Migration: Italian American Women, Food and Identity. In: Espín, O.M., Dottolo, A.L. (eds) Gendered Journeys: Women, Migration and Feminist Psychology. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137521477_14
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137521477_14
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-70550-4
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-52147-7
eBook Packages: Palgrave Social Sciences CollectionSocial Sciences (R0)