L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2017 www.italoamericano.org 12 L'Italo-Americano A s a community, Italian Americans are just begin- ning to understand the value of the written word. For years publishers have been say- ing that the Italian American is not the target audience for most books--they don't buy books because they don't read. However, there is something happening to Italian/American culture that is changing this stereotypic notion. This "some- thing" emerges as Italian Americans transfer dependence on oral tradition to one of a writ- ten tradition. I am often approached by people who have asked me to write their life-stories. Why, all of a sudden, do these Italian/Americans begin search- ing for writers? I believe this is caused by the disintegration of the traditional Italian/American community and the dissemina- tion of Italian individuals into American society. The life sto- ries of our ancestors were part of the common knowledge of those who lived communal lives. In small villages, where con- tact with others was almost daily, the topics of conversations could be expanded to include history. And history, in terms of origin stories, was kept alive from gen- eration to generation by memory and word of mouth. The past was always a part of the present. This method was sufficient as long as a family did not move away from its place of origins. Even today, all you need to do to learn about your ancestral past is to spend some time in the piazze of the southern Italian villages amidst the old pensioners. However things began to change even though Italian immigrants settled in areas called Little Italys. In these "old" neighborhoods, the oral traditions were kept alive through the constant interaction among families and friends. This oral transmission system worked because of the continuous con- tact we had with the extended family and paesani. And as long as the oral system operated the need for reading and writing was limited to the demands of social and economic factors of the larg- er society. There was little need to record history as history lived in the minds and words of those who surrounded our lives. As the old neighborhoods dis- solved with migration to multi- cultural settings and to the far- away places where jobs had taken us, that everyday contact with the past gave way to occa- sional encounters in which, at best, only a small number of sto- ries could get passed on. One result of this communal disinte- gration was the loss of an access to a past that could not only inform but also enhance the pre- sent. This lost surfaced in ques- tions that need to be answered and an emptiness that needs to be filled. All good writing begins with good questions; all great writers begin by filling the great voids in their lives. There is no doubt that for Italian Americans the number of questions and the size of the voids are growing. This is espe- cially true as the original pio- neers disappear without having been listened to. This is precise- ly why we are coming into a time in which our writers will be rec- ognized. Their recognition will be due to their ability to listen and to respond to what's heard by creating literature. It is typical of any advanced literate society to depend less and less on its elders. After all, the past is recorded in books, in films, on tapes; the dependence on the elder's memory is exchanged for the dependence on the expert. The problem with Italian Americans is that we have yet to understand this function of a print-oriented society, a society that separates past from present. As we advance, we exchange our personal histories for a public history that has distorted our communal presence through the presentation and preservation of stereotypes. In short, as we move into the fourth and fifth generation we find that, in spite of the predomi- nance of mass media, we are depending more and more on the written word for the recording of our history and common institu- tions beyond the family for dis- semination of that history. The evolution of Italian/American culture depends very much on our ability to produce our histo- ry. And if we do not write our own history, we will find that future Italian Americans will, in spite of the best intentions of individual family influence, lose control of their identities. No matter the occasion, whenever a speaker is called upon to address an Italian/ American issue, he or she inevitably points to an illustrious past filled with great works of art. But Renaissance painters are not directly related to the Italian experiences that form bases for Italian/American culture. Only when the present interacts with the past, can we say that a tradi- tion is being created. The stories of our past, especially when told by our elders, have been the major vehicle by which our her- itage is transmitted from genera- tion to generation. But this process became endangered when Italians migrated to America. Loss of shared primary lan- guages, lack of shared environ- ments (as children leave not only the homes, but also the neighbor- hoods and often the states of their upbringing), impedes the devel- opment of a sense of tradition. As T.S. Eliot knew, the task of organizing a literary tradition belongs to the literary critics and historians, but the task of recog- nizing one belongs to the individ- ual reader and writer. As a poet in an exile of sorts, Eliot knew well the importance of staying connected to a tradi- tion and that of keeping a tradi- tion alive. Fortunately for him, the tradition of English literature had no geographical boundaries. Wherever one reads and writes English, there is always the pos- sibility of knowing the best of what literature is produced. This will be the same for Italian Americans, but theirs is a double duty: to know both Italian and American literature. And this is why it is important for Italian Americans to turn to their writers who will help them to think about what it meant to be an Italian American, what it means to be Italian American today, and what it will mean to be Italian American in the future. Fred Gardaphe is Distinguished Professor of English and Italian American Studies at Queens College, City University of New York T r a d i t i o n a n d t h e I n d i v i d u a l I t a l i a n A m e r i c a n : T h e I m p o r t a n c e o f I t a l i a n American Writing Tradition...cannot be inherited, and if you want it you must obtain it by great labour. T.S. Eliot, "Tradition and the Individual Talent." FRED GARDAPHE FOCUS COMMUNITY LIFE & PEOPLE TRADITIONS

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