You are here: Rue's Kitchen • Italian American Literature
Rue's Kitchen
The Significance of Nicknames in Italian-American Culture and the Novel Christ In Concrete
My paternal grand-father was Francesco Roselli. His nick-name was, and he was best known as Ciccillo Caricaleggio. ~Rue
by Sharon Leggio
Nicknames. They are something that everyone is familiar with in one way or another. However, most people have little, if any, personal experience with nicknames. In Italian-American culture, nicknames play a major role in everyday life. Nicknames are formed with a certain unspoken format, and they have a particular importance. In Italian-American culture nicknames, even though to others they may seem harsh and cruel, are terms of endearment and give a…
Christ in Concrete and the Failure of Catholicism
by Sarah Benelli
Pietro DiDonato’s Christ in Concrete is a powerful narrative of the struggles and culture of New York’s Italian immigrant laborers in the early twentieth century. Jerre Mangione and Ben Morreale, in their historical work La Storia, state that "Never before or since has the aggravation of the Italian immigrant been more bluntly expressed by a novelist" (368). A central component of this "aggravation", both for DiDonato as an author and for his protagonist Paul, is the struggle to reconcile traditional religious beliefs and customs with the failure of that very same faith to…
Page 1 of 1 pages