After Identity: Migration, Critique, Italian American Culture

Literary Nonfiction. History. Italian American Studies. "Migration teaches that history changes, that values are never supra-historical, that what applied once in time (say: antiquity) or space (say: the home country), perhaps no longer applies, or would actually gain from being modified, from being brought up to date to confront problems that were unthought-of, unimaginable a generation, a century ago. Migrating on the other hand is the best image for an existence profoundly informed by change, transit, uncertainty, fear at times, but also freedom, dreams, excitement, fueling a need to discover... This condition which, beyond economic fears and personal hardships is marked by a profound inner rift, an unnarratable experience... but one which somehow must be told.

Again. And again"—from the Introduction