Op-Eds
Southern-Italian American students have (albeit very limited) opportunity to study female representations in Italian Renaissance literature and in Italian American literature. However, there is virtually no opportunity to study female literary representations during the post-Risorgimento period when the northern dominated Italian government was exporting southern-Italian women by the millions in an effort to support Italy’s economy with American wages sent back to Italy. Accordingly, there is no opportunity to study the evolution of female literary representations from the onset of the Great Migration such as the “Scapigliatura” genre (e.g. the anti-bellesima “Fosca”) down to present day Italian American writers such as Lisa Scottoline.