Specialist to discuss language and literature of Italian immigrants

Martino Marazzi, the Tiro a Segno Visiting Professor in Italian American Culture at New York University, will deliver “Stories of Italian Immigration: Ties of Affection and Language Changes” on Friday, Dec. 5, at 4:45 p.m. in Room 210 of Blaustein Humanities Center.

Marazzi is a leading specialist in early Italian-American literature who has written numerous books, including “"Voices of Italian America: A History of Early Italian American Literature with a Critical Anthology.” He will take the audience on a journey through the daily words, images and literary creations of ordinary and extraordinary immigrants of Italian origin. Using rare and mostly unpublished materials, he will reveal how memoirs and verbal messages among friends, lovers and relatives express the deep personal transformations arising from their adaptations to the New World.

“Those who attend will be enriched by the history of emotions of this ethnic group that, like others, came to the United States,” said Paolo Sica, associate professor of Italian and chair of the Italian Studies Department. “They will discover how the affective experiences of Italian migrants through words and images were altered by their contact with the host culture and, at the same time, how the host culture was transformed by this new presence. “

The event is co-sponsored by the departments of Italian Studies, Anthropology, Art History, English and History, as well as the Toor Cummings Center for International Studies.

For more information, contact Sica at psica@conncoll.edu.

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November 26, 2014