Autore
Restuccia, Laura

Titolo
Di là dell'Oceano: la "Merica" e gli Italiani tra sogno e incubo
Periodico
In verbis
Anno: 2013 - Fascicolo: 1 - Pagina iniziale: 117 - Pagina finale: 154

The migration of Italians to the United States began to gather force in the1870s and grow into a mass phenomenon that lasted from 1880 through1924. The World War I together with the restrictive Emergency QuotaAct of 1921 and Immigration Act of 1924, effectively put an abruptend to the large flow of Italian immigrants into the Country. Italian emigrantsleft their Country in the hope of a better life; once arrived at EllisIsland their dreams turned into a nightmare. Often with no knowledgeof the English language and with little education, many of the immigrantswere compelled to accept the poorest paying and most undesirable jobs.Among the first generation of immigrants, only about a third of the them,so called "birds of passage", intended to stay in the United States foronly a limited time; while many of them did return to Italy, others choseto stay. After the World War II, Italians continued to emigrate. An estimated600,000 arrived in the United States in the post-war decades, butmany of them were now well educated men and women who had comeseeking greater opportunities in their chosen fields.The first Italian-American writers published their works in Italians dialectson the early Italian language newspapers such as "L'Eco d'Italia" or"Il Progresso Italo-Americano". Dozens of Italian American socialist, anarchist,religious, fascist, anti-fascist, unionist, and literary magazines havebeen published since then. The second generation of immigrants learnedEnglish and responded to their experience in America through poetry, dramaand prose: English was now the language most commonly heard on thestreets of the "Little Italies". Common themes in Italian American literatureinclude conflicts between marginal Italian American and mainstreamculture, and tradition-bound immigrant parents opposed by their moreassimilated children. On the other side of the Ocean, the Italian writerstold emigration from a localistic point of view. In their works migrationcontinues to be an hope.



SICI: 2279-8978(2013)1<117:DLDL"E>2.0.ZU;2-2
Testo completo: http://www.mulino.it/download/article/10.7368/73921
Testo completo alternativo: http://www.mulino.it/doi/10.7368/73921

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