The peasant and the pen

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Often portrayed as criminals or amoral opportunists, Italian American men have been among the most misrepresented and misunderstood ethnic groups of the past century. This book provides a deeper understanding of Italian American manhood through careful readings of Italian, Italian American, and other narrative texts. Beginning with an analysis of Giovanni Verga’s late-nineteenth-century Sicilian peasant tales, it follows the journey of Italian American men as depicted in Horatio Alger’s rags-to-riches stories, immigrant autobiographies, John Fante’s realistic novels of first-generation male angst, and Anthony Valerio’s narratives of the struggle for personal and cultural identity in contemporary America.