Feeling Italian: The Art of Ethnicity in America

Thomas J. Ferraro, Duke University

On the cover of Thomas Ferraro’s new book Feeling Italian: The Art of Ethnicity in America (New York University Press), there is a striking black-and-white photograph of a cook, his back to the camera, in a restaurant window on Broadway, circa 1937. The cook, classically dressed, holds up a generous fork of spaghetti, brightly illuminated, lifting it to a crowd gathered in wonder ” inviting them to partake as if it were the Eucharist. Ferraro will present this virtuoso image (so stereotypical yet so resonant) of the Italian-American way with ethnicity, prefiguring his book while urging his audience to join him in (debating) the vernacular style of love-and-irony that he calls “feeling Italian.”