Italianness and Migration from the Risorgimento to the 1960s

This edited collection explores the notion of Italianness - or Italianità – through migration history. It focuses on the interaction between Italians circulating around the world, and their relationship with Italy from a political and cultural perspective. Answering the important question of how migration affects Italianness, the authors explore the ways in which migrants retained their Italian culture, customs and practices during and after their travels. Spanning a long period from the Risorgimento up until the 1960s, the book sheds light on the institutions and social structures that contributed to the construction of cultural links between Italian migrants and their country of origin. Not only broad in its temporal scope, the volume covers a wide geographic area, examining the lives of Italian migrants in North America, South America, Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. Bringing together a wealth of research on Italians, alongside the different migratory routes takenby these men and women, this book provides new insights into Italian culture and seeks to strengthen our understanding of Italian migration history.

1. Introduction; Catherine Brice, Manuela Martini, Stéphane Mourlane & Céline Regnard.- Part I. Italians through their Travels.- 2. The Risorgimento Italians' Journeys and Exile Narratives: Flight, Expedition or Peregrination; Delphine Diaz.- 3. From Italy to the Levant: Mediterranean Itineraries of the Venetian Émigres in 1849; Giacomo Girardi.- 4. "He is all American Now": Italian Americans in the Italian Campaign of World War II; Manoela Patti.- 5. Italiannes, Flexible Citizenship and Belonging: Unravelling Paths of Emigrant Descendants' 'Return' to North Eastern Italy; Melissa Blanchard.- Part II. Italian Institutions.- 6. Italianness in Colonial Tunisia through the Dante Alighieri Society, 1893-1920; Fabriele Montalbano.- 7. The Promotion of Italiannes in Argentina during the Interwar Period; Laura Fotia.- 8. The Ventottisti, or the Generation of 1928: Italian Consuls, the Spread of Fascism and the Question of Italian Imperialism; Joãa Fábio Bertonha.- 9. The Italianization of the Italian American and Fascism's Entrance into American Ethnic Politics, 1930-35; Jessica H. Lee.- 10. Emigration for Adoption: The National Catholic Welfare Conference and the Adoption of Italian Children in the United States; Silvia Cassamagnaghi.- Part III. Italian Words.- 11. Italian Language in Exile in France during the First Half of the Nineteenth Century; Laura Fournier-Finocchiaro.- 12. Italianità under Influence: Filippo Manetta - A Mazzinian Exile in America, a Confederate Agent in Italy; Bénédicte Deschamps.- 13. The Writing and Pidgin of Miners Native to Emilia Working in Pennsylvania and Illinois, 1898-1914; Marco Fincardi.- 14. From the Local Identity of Basilicata nel Mondo to the National Community of Italiani pel Mondo: Italian Press and Emigration, 1924-30; Gaetano Morese.- Part IV. Manifestations of Italianness.- 15. Crisscross Italianities: Circulations, Identifications and Sociability in Nineteenth-century Istanbul; Marie Bossaert.- 16.A Paper Trail: Italian Migrants in Marseille and Buenos Aires, 1860-1914; Thibault Bechini.- 17. "Bread Denied by the Nation": The Italians Abroad Exhibitions between the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries; Anna Pellegrino.- 18. When the Italians Came on the Scene: Immigration and Negotiation of Identities in the Popular Theatre of São Paulo in the Early Twentieth Century; Virginia de Almeida Bessa.