Notes

Introduction

1. The list of works bearing witness to the strength and value of ItalianCanadian productions is by now very long. For a critical update on the different collections and anthologies, up to 2002, see the Editor’s Note in The Dynamics of Cultural Exchange, edited by L. Canton, with an introduction by C. Verduyn and L. Canton (Montreal: Cusmano, 2002). See also C. Morgan Di Giovanni (ed.), Bravo! A Selection of Prose and Poetry by Italian Canadian Writers (Toronto: Quattro Books, 2012) and Italian Canadian Voices: A Literary Anthology (Oakville: Mosaic Press, 2006); J. Pivato (ed.), The Anthology of ItalianCanadian Writing (Toronto: Guernica Editions, 1998); M. De Franceschi (ed.), Pillars of Lace (Toronto: Guernica Editions, 1998); Canton, De Santis, Fazio (eds.), Writing Beyond History (Montreal: Cusmano, 2006); De Santis, Fazio, Foschi Ciampolini (eds.), Strange Peregrinations (Toronto: Iacobucci Centre, 2007); Canton, Fazio, Zucchero (eds.), Reflections on Culture (Toronto: Iacobucci Centre, 2010).

2. See, for instance: Giuliana Benvenuti, Remo Ceserani, La letteratura nell’età globale, Bologna: Il Mulino, 2012; Theo D’Haen, The Routledge Concise History of World Literature, Routledge, 2011; Eric Hayot, On Literary Worlds, Oxford UP, 2012.

Migration to Exile: the Paradox of Exodus

1. Delivered at a conference organized by the Wheatland Foundation in Vienna in November 1987, the lecture was published with the title “The Condition We Call Exile, or Acorns Aweigh,” in Joseph Brodsky, On Grief and Reason: Essays, New York: Farrar Straus and Giroux, 1995, pp.22-34; the quotation is the initial paragraph of the essay, pp. 22-23.

2. One should not dismiss the importance of the theme of exile, although seen from a different perspective, in the poetry of Pascoli: suffice to mention “Italy.”

3. J. Brodsky, “The Condition We Call Exile, or Acorns Aweigh,” in J. Brodsky, On Grief and Reason: Essays, p. 25.

4. Ibidem, p. 22.

Ways of Writing Home

1. In the early twentieth century the concept of ‘America’ in the Italian immigrant imagination largely collapsed national distinctions between the USA and Canada, and even South America and other destinations such as Australia. This point is noted in much of the literature on Italian migration, including an article by S. Iuliano and L. Baldassar who state: “... for millions of actual emigrants from the Italian peninsula in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, “l’America” was as much a state of mind as a place. It encompassed all places overseas that held out the promise of wealth and security ...”

Entering Sicily

1. This is the version read at the Atri conference. “Entering Sicily” also appears in Darlene Madott’s collection Stations of the Heart (Exile Editions, 2012) and in Descant 154: Sicily, Land of Forgotten Dreams, Vol. 42, No. 3, Fall 2011.

The Funeral

1. First published in Osvaldo Zappa’s memoir Giovanni’s Journey (Montreal: Cusmano, 2010).

Building My Bridge Home

1. First published in LIPS, 2009.

2. First published in The Paterson Literary Review, 2007. Editor’s Choice for Allen Ginsburg Poetry Award 2006.

My Husband Lives in My garage

1. First published in Accenti Magazine, Issue 22 (Summer 2011), 20-22. This story received Honourable Mention in the fifth annual Accenti Magazine writing contest.

Homecoming

1. First published in Accenti Magazine, Issue 19 (Summer 2010) under the title: “Little Italy, Montreal: Redefining the Old Neighbourhood.”

2. See two books published in 2012: Beyond Barbed Wire: Essays on the Internment of Italian Canadians and Behind Barbed Wire: Creative Works on the Internment of Italian Canadians (eds. Licia Canton, Domenic Cusmano, Michael Mirolla, Jim Zucchero), available at www.guernicaeditions.com/free_ebooks.php.

La giacca

1. The original story in English, “The Jacket,” was published in Sweet Lemons 2, edited by Venera Fazio and Delia De Santis (Mineola, NY: Legas, 2010).

America

1. First published in Feile-Festa: Literary Arts Journal (Spring 2011).

Poems From Random Thoughts

1. Marisa De Franceschi, Random Thoughts (Montreal, Longbridge Books, 2010).

In the Stacks

1. “In the Stacks” was first published in Bridges: A Global Anthology of Short Stories. Ed. Maurice A. Lee. Little Rock, AR: Tememos Publishing, 2012.

Transcultural creative nonFiction: caterina Edwards’ Finding Rosa and Janice Kulyk Keefer’s Honey and Ashes. Finding the Way Home Through Narrative

1. Used with permission.

2. Used with permission.

3. To “accept the challenge of an identity without dwelling, drawing the contours of a proximity exposed to the outside and to alterity, although not wiped out by such exposition” [My translation].

Nino ricci’s Mythopoiesis: Where Has He gone?

1. Plato, Symposium. During the Symposium, Aristophanes gives his opinion about love and tells the story of the myth of the two halves. Once men were perfect and they had everything. There was no difference between men and women, but Zeus, who was jealous of such perfection, divided them in two halves. Since then each of us is constantly looking for his/her half, because when the other half is reunited, everybody recovers his/her lost perfection. Il mito delle due metà: “Ciascuno pensa semplicemente che il dio ha espresso ciò che da lungo tempo senza dubbio desiderava: riunirsi e fondersi con l’altra anima. Non più due, ma un’anima sola.” Available at http://www.girodivite.it/Il-mito-delledue-metadiPlatone.html;

2. On this aspect see all classical and literary references like Homer’s Odyssey and Joyce’s Ulysses. In ancient Greece the word nostos refers both to the journey back home of Greek heroes from Troy and to the story of this journey.

3. Nino Ricci: “I’d been to my mother’s village, which Valle del Sole is based on.” See also Mary Rimmer’s interview with Nino Ricci: “Nino Ricci: A Big Canvas” in Studies in Canadian Literature, Fredericton, CA: University of New Brunswick, Vol.18.02 1993: available at http://www.lib.unb.ca/Texts/SCL/;

4. For the definition of “Italianese” literature see Filippo Salvatore’s works, for example Ancient Memories, Modern Identities (translated by Domenic Cusmano), Montréal: Guernica Editions, 1999.

5. Nino Ricci, Pierre Elliott Trudeau. Extraordinary Canadians Coll., Toronto: Penguin Canada, 2009.

6. Reference available at Nino Ricci’s own website: http://ninoricci.com/news/ barack-obama-to-visit-ricci-web-site

Sweet Lemons 2: Discovery and Memory

1. All texts cited are published in Sweet Lemons 2. Eds. Venera Fazio and Delia De Santis. Mineola, NY & Ottawa: Legas 2010.

La traversata: Italian immigrant accounts of ocean crossings

1. First published in English in Accenti Magazine, Issue 20, Fall 2010, 18-20.