Italian Americans on Screen

Ryan Calabretta-Sajder is assistant professor of Italian at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville.Alan J. Gravano is assistant professor and writing center director at Rocky Mountain University.

Both building upon and moving beyond established critical paradigms, Italian Americans on Screen promotes crucial new lines of media inquiry. It legitimizes the contributions of non-Italian American filmmakers; touches upon long-ignored television programs, century-old newspapers and new media programs; and delves into recent exchanges between Italian and American media cultures. This collection is a fundamental (re)starting point for future research.

• IntroductionRyan Calabretta-Sajder & Alan GravanoPart I: What is Italian-American Cinema?1.What is Italian about Sofia Coppola? Tracing Ethnicity in Third-Generation Feminist CinemaColleen Ryan2.Edible Ethnicity: Italian-American Representations, Cinematic Style, and Ethnic Commodification in Stanley Tucci’s and Campbell Scott’s Big NightJonathan Cavallero3.Questioning the Italian-American Palooka: From Definition of Race to Disabilities in Avildsen’s Rocky, Coogler’s Creed, and Caple Jr’s Creed II Alan GravanoPart II: Blurring the Lines between Italian and American on Screen4.The Italian Pursuit of HollywoodMary Ann McDonald Carolan5.Comedies of Identity: Italian Cinema and Television Narrating Italian AmericansGiuseppe SorrentinoPart III: Re-Viewing Italian Americana on Screen: Reception and Reflections6.Who’s Laughing at Whom? Masculinity, Humor, and Italian American Lives on Mainstream Television: Friends Ryan Calabretta-Sajder7.Tony Soprano Meets Furio Giunta: Ital