文档介绍：By the Breath
of Their Mouths
Narratives of Resistance in Italian America
Mary Jo Bona
By the Breath of Their Mouths
SUNY series in Italian/American Culture
Fred L. Gardaphe, editor
By the Breath of Their Mouths
NARRATIVES OF RESISTANCE
IN ITALIAN AMERICA
Mary Jo Bona
Cover art: “Basement Reverie” painting by Christine Perri.
Textured woodgrain background © Selahattin Bayram/
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2010 State University of New York
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bona, Mary Jo.
By the breath of their mouths : narratives of resistance in Italian America /
Mary Jo Bona.
p. cm. —(Suny Press series in Italian/American culture)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4384-2995-3 (hardcover : alk. paper) —
ISBN 978-1-4384-2996-0 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. American literature—Italian American authors—History and criticism.
2. Italian Americans in literature. 3. Italian Americans—Intellectual life.
I. Title.
2010
'851—dc22
2009017905
**********
To the memory of my beloved mother and twin brother
By the word of Yahweh the heavens were made,
Their whole array by the breath of his mouth.
—Psalms 33:6
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
1. Justice/Giustizia—Private Justice and the Folkloric
Community in the World of Italian Americans 11
2. Faith/Fede—Plenty to Confess: Women