“IDENTITY ON THE MOVE” FOOD, SYMBOLISM AND AUTHENTICITY IN THE ITALIAN-AMERICAN MIGRATION PROCESS

My work aims to contribute to the study of the human experience of “food space”, understood as a social construction that encompasses patterns of human behavior and their sensory relationship to a place. The purpose of this study is to collect information about the historical development of Italian food in America, in order to gain a deeper understanding of how Italian foodways changed during and following the years of Italian migration to the U.S., and imagine future trends within the contemporary culturally diverse world. The core of this research project is a multi-generational investigation of the multifaceted Italian immigration process, using food culture as a vehicle for examining how immigrants lost their old identity and forged a new one in a foreign land. The focus on the United States was motivated by the fact that starting in the late 19th century, it was one of the primary destinations for Italian emigration. In fact, 5.5 million Italians moved there between 1820 and 2004 (Cavaioli 221). To explain how regional cuisine in America became a collective symbol of ethnicity and a factor of a distinct national identity for Italian Americans, I adopted the model created by Werner Sollors and Kathleen Neils Cozen regarding the “invention of ethnicity”. The overall purpose of this dissertation is to examine how food served as a nostalgic link with the homeland for the first generation, a cultural compromise for the second, and a tool in formulating a hybrid ethnicity for later generations. The lens of food is also used to explore the development of Italian ethnic entrepreneurship, followed by the rise of Italian restaurants during Prohibition and their role in the process of culinary homogenization and invention of tradition in the contemporary world. Finally, two case studies are presented and discussed, and a qualitative approach is used to analyze the creation of a solid Italian American identity in contemporary America through the use of hybrid food practices. The opening chapter explores the large-scale migration that affected Italy and Italian cultural history for over a century, and then follows the development in time of food and foodways. The first section describes the cultural significance of food and its role in constructing a national identity beyond the borders of Italy and the subsequent variation in food habits during the mass immigration. The second chapter analyzes the not-fixed nature of food, explored through three distinct but often overlapping spheres: “individual memory”, “collective memory”, and “invented tradition”. In terms of “individual memory”, through the perpetuation of rituals of eating at home, the first immigrants promoted a “mythical tradition” by selecting ancestral values and transmitting them to following generations. In terms of collective memory, we can observe the conflict between the first and second generation of Italian immigrants in response to the social pressures of their new country. Here, the elders use food and symbolic rituals to keep their children close, while the second generation struggles to give birth to a new innovative culture, closer to the American one. The analysis ends with the representation of later generations committed to recreating a separate culture of food as a symbol of creolized identity. Chapter three, the first empirical chapter of the dissertation, analyzes various literary forms in which second, third and contemporary generations of Italian-Americans reminisce on or seek to learn more about their heritage, and shows the importance of Italian food in shaping Italian-American identity. This part focuses on intergenerational changes in the expression of food identity and construction of a new ethnic identity. The fourth chapter outlines Italian food economic history in America, in an ethnic narrative that brings together economic, social and cultural aspects of the Italian diaspora in America, from the early inexpensive restaurants that offered diners traditional Italian home-cooking, to the development of a recognizable Italian-American style of cooking. The section ends with an exploration of the ‘Italian sounding’ phenomenon in the US, in which restaurant chains and the food industry use images, colors and product names very similar to their Italian equivalent but with no direct links to Italian traditions or culture. The final chapter provides an ethnographic description of what it means to be an Italian-American today and explores how Italian restaurants currently fit into the American culinary tradition. Using the theory of the invention of tradition, it describes two ethnographic researches in Naples, Florida, to analyze how contemporary Italian Americans manifest their ethnicity through food as a symbol of belonging, and explores how Italian food is marketed in contemporary ethnic restaurants in the U.S. My work aims to contribute to the study of the human experience of “food space”, understood as a social construction that encompasses patterns of human behavior and their sensory relationship to a place. The purpose of this study is to collect information about the historical development of Italian food in America, in order to gain a deeper understanding of how Italian foodways changed during and following the years of Italian migration to the U.S., and imagine future trends within the contemporary culturally diverse world. The core of this research project is a multi-generational investigation of the multifaceted Italian immigration process, using food culture as a vehicle for examining how immigrants lost their old identity and forged a new one in a foreign land. The focus on the United States was motivated by the fact that starting in the late 19th century, it was one of the primary destinations for Italian emigration. In fact, 5.5 million Italians moved there between 1820 and 2004 (Cavaioli 221). To explain how regional cuisine in America became a collective symbol of ethnicity and a factor of a distinct national identity for Italian Americans, I adopted the model created by Werner Sollors and Kathleen Neils Cozen regarding the “invention of ethnicity”. The overall purpose of this dissertation is to examine how food served as a nostalgic link with the homeland for the first generation, a cultural compromise for the second, and a tool in formulating a hybrid ethnicity for later generations. The lens of food is also used to explore the development of Italian ethnic entrepreneurship, followed by the rise of Italian restaurants during Prohibition and their role in the process of culinary homogenization and invention of tradition in the contemporary world. Finally, two case studies are presented and discussed, and a qualitative approach is used to analyze the creation of a solid Italian American identity in contemporary America through the use of hybrid food practices. The opening chapter explores the large-scale migration that affected Italy and Italian cultural history for over a century, and then follows the development in time of food and foodways. The first section describes the cultural significance of food and its role in constructing a national identity beyond the borders of Italy and the subsequent variation in food habits during the mass immigration. The second chapter analyzes the not-fixed nature of food, explored through three distinct but often overlapping spheres: “individual memory”, “collective memory”, and “invented tradition”. In terms of “individual memory”, through the perpetuation of rituals of eating at home, the first immigrants promoted a “mythical tradition” by selecting ancestral values and transmitting them to following generations. In terms of collective memory, we can observe the conflict between the first and second generation of Italian immigrants in response to the social pressures of their new country. Here, the elders use food and symbolic rituals to keep their children close, while the second generation struggles to give birth to a new innovative culture, closer to the American one. The analysis ends with the representation of later generations committed to recreating a separate culture of food as a symbol of creolized identity. Chapter three, the first empirical chapter of the dissertation, analyzes various literary forms in which second, third and contemporary generations of Italian-Americans reminisce on or seek to learn more about their heritage, and shows the importance of Italian food in shaping Italian-American identity. This part focuses on intergenerational changes in the expression of food identity and construction of a new ethnic identity. The fourth chapter outlines Italian food economic history in America, in an ethnic narrative that brings together economic, social and cultural aspects of the Italian diaspora in America, from the early inexpensive restaurants that offered diners traditional Italian home-cooking, to the development of a recognizable Italian-American style of cooking. The section ends with an exploration of the ‘Italian sounding’ phenomenon in the US, in which restaurant chains and the food industry use images, colors and product names very similar to their Italian equivalent but with no direct links to Italian traditions or culture. The final chapter provides an ethnographic description of what it means to be an Italian-American today and explores how Italian restaurants currently fit into the American culinary tradition. Using the theory of the invention of tradition, it describes two ethnographic researches in Naples, Florida, to analyze how contemporary Italian Americans manifest their ethnicity through food as a symbol of belonging, and explores how Italian food is marketed in contemporary ethnic restaurants in the U.S. My work aims to contribute to the study of the human experience of “food space”, understood as a social construction that encompasses patterns of human behavior and their sensory relationship to a place. The purpose of this study is to collect information about the historical development of Italian food in America, in order to gain a deeper understanding of how Italian foodways changed during and following the years of Italian migration to the U.S., and imagine future trends within the contemporary culturally diverse world. The core of this research project is a multi-generational investigation of the multifaceted Italian immigration process, using food culture as a vehicle for examining how immigrants lost their old identity and forged a new one in a foreign land. The focus on the United States was motivated by the fact that starting in the late 19th century, it was one of the primary destinations for Italian emigration. In fact, 5.5 million Italians moved there between 1820 and 2004 (Cavaioli 221). To explain how regional cuisine in America became a collective symbol of ethnicity and a factor of a distinct national identity for Italian Americans, I adopted the model created by Werner Sollors and Kathleen Neils Cozen regarding the “invention of ethnicity”. The overall purpose of this dissertation is to examine how food served as a nostalgic link with the homeland for the first generation, a cultural compromise for the second, and a tool in formulating a hybrid ethnicity for later generations. The lens of food is also used to explore the development of Italian ethnic entrepreneurship, followed by the rise of Italian restaurants during Prohibition and their role in the process of culinary homogenization and invention of tradition in the contemporary world. Finally, two case studies are presented and discussed, and a qualitative approach is used to analyze the creation of a solid Italian American identity in contemporary America through the use of hybrid food practices. The opening chapter explores the large-scale migration that affected Italy and Italian cultural history for over a century, and then follows the development in time of food and foodways. The first section describes the cultural significance of food and its role in constructing a national identity beyond the borders of Italy and the subsequent variation in food habits during the mass immigration. The second chapter analyzes the not-fixed nature of food, explored through three distinct but often overlapping spheres: “individual memory”, “collective memory”, and “invented tradition”. In terms of “individual memory”, through the perpetuation of rituals of eating at home, the first immigrants promoted a “mythical tradition” by selecting ancestral values and transmitting them to following generations. In terms of collective memory, we can observe the conflict between the first and second generation of Italian immigrants in response to the social pressures of their new country. Here, the elders use food and symbolic rituals to keep their children close, while the second generation struggles to give birth to a new innovative culture, closer to the American one. The analysis ends with the representation of later generations committed to recreating a separate culture of food as a symbol of creolized identity. Chapter three, the first empirical chapter of the dissertation, analyzes various literary forms in which second, third and contemporary generations of Italian-Americans reminisce on or seek to learn more about their heritage, and shows the importance of Italian food in shaping Italian-American identity. This part focuses on intergenerational changes in the expression of food identity and construction of a new ethnic identity. The fourth chapter outlines Italian food economic history in America, in an ethnic narrative that brings together economic, social and cultural aspects of the Italian diaspora in America, from the early inexpensive restaurants that offered diners traditional Italian home-cooking, to the development of a recognizable Italian-American style of cooking. The section ends with an exploration of the ‘Italian sounding’ phenomenon in the US, in which restaurant chains and the food industry use images, colors and product names very similar to their Italian equivalent but with no direct links to Italian traditions or culture. The final chapter provides an ethnographic description of what it means to be an Italian-American today and explores how Italian restaurants currently fit into the American culinary tradition. Using the theory of the invention of tradition, it describes two ethnographic researches in Naples, Florida, to analyze how contemporary Italian Americans manifest their ethnicity through food as a symbol of belonging, and explores how Italian food is marketed in contemporary ethnic restaurants in the U.S.