FUHGGEDABOUDIT:
QUANDO L’ITALIANO SBARCA IN AMERICA
Maria Grazia Sindoni
mgsindoni@unime.it
Università di Messina
IN BREVE…
• 1a parte
• La rappresentazione: quali strategie, metodi, obiettivi?
• La rappresentazione: quali interessi e quali ideologie?
• Esempi di rappresentazione
• 2a parte
• Studio sull’autopercezione delle identità culturali di
italoamericani di cosiddetta «seconda generazione»
LA RAPPRESENTAZIONE
• Linguistica e semiotica
• De Saussure -> strutturalismo; post-strutturalismo
• Semiotica
• Foucault, Lévi-Strauss, Barthes
• Barthes -> significato, significante -> testo -> interpretazione
• Studi semiotici <-> studi sociosemiotici (Halliday 1978) <->
studi multimodali (Kress e van Leeuwen 1996, 2001, 2002,
2006, Kress 2010, etc.)
LEGGERE LE IMMAGINI
•
Studi sociosemiotici
•
Sistemi semantici
•
Metafunzioni
• Ideazionale
• Interpersonale
• Testuale
LA RAPPRESENTAZIONE
LA RAPPRESENTAZIONE
LA RAPPRESENTAZIONE
LEGGERE UN TESTO (ESERCIZIO 1)
GENERALIZZAZIONE DI GRUPPO E STEREOTIPO
•
"Group generalizations are flexible and permeable to new, countervailing, knowledge-ideas,
interpretations, and information that challenge or undermine current beliefs. Stereotypes are rigid and
resistant to change even in the face of compelling new evidence.
•
Second, group generalizations incorporate intragroup heterogeneity while stereotypes foster
intragroup homogeneity. Group generalizations embrace diversity - 'there are many kinds of Jews, tall
and short, mean and generous, clever and stupid, black and white, rich and poor'. Stereotypes cast
certain individuals as exceptions or deviants - 'though you are Jewish, you don't behave as a Jew
would, you are different'.
•
Finally, while generalizations provide mere clues about group culture and behavior - stereotypes
purport to proffer immutable rules applicable to all the members of the group. Stereotypes develop
easily, rigidify surreptitiously, and operate reflexively, providing simple, comfortable, convenient bases
for making personal sense of the world. Because generalizations require greater attention, content
flexibility, and nuance in application, they do not provide a stereotype's security blanket of permanent,
inviolate, all-encompassing, perfectly reliable group knowledge.“ (Cortes, 2001)
FESTA
BACKSEATS ITALIANS
•
Backseats Italians: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fBFm4OD2W0 (Esercizio 2)
•
Italian invasion: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbRKAVZBlRc (Esercizio 2)
•
Stereotype:
•
http://www.nationalstereotype.com/the-most-common-stereotypes-about-italians/
(Esercizio 3)
GOOGLE IMAGES
•
Italian American people
IMMIGRANTS
GUIDOS
ITALIAN AMERICAN GANGSTERS
ITALIAN FOOD
YOU KNOW YOU’RE ITALIAN WHEN...
You have a nonna. You eat Sunday dinner at 2:00 You know what a rice
ball really tastes like.
Your car has a green red and a white bow with a horn attached on the
mirror! You know the words to Dominick the Donkey!
The Godfather is your role model.
Your nonna's meat balls are the best
Favorite movies: Godfather, Good Fellas, Bronx Tale, The Last Don... and
you live by them.
You've been hit with a wooden spoon or had a shoe thrown at you by
either your mother or your nonna.
Your father owns 5 houses, has $300,000 in the bank, but still drives a 76
Monte Carlo.
You share a bathroom with your 5 brothers, have no money, but drive a
$45,000 Camaro or Firebird.
INTERROGATIVI E IPOTESI
• Quale è la percezione degli italoamericani della cultura
e della lingua italiana?
• Fino a che punto la nostra Italia è diversa dalla loro
Italia?
• Il potere dei media
• “Cultural transfer effect”.
METODO
• Ricerca sociolinguistica
• Rapid appraisal method (Bergman 1991, Stalder 1996)
• Selezione di un campione di informatori
• Questionari individuali
• Obiettivi: esplorare gli atteggiamenti della comunità di parlanti e
compilare una wordlist in base alle indicazioni lessicali degli
informatori
DATI
•
Forma scritta
•
Lessicali/Pragmatici
•
Percezioni sulla propria cultura e lingua/percezioni sul proprio gruppo di appartenenza
(intragroup-intergroup, Trudgill, 1996, 2001)
•
Rappresentazione degli italoamericani nei media: identificazione/rifiuto
INFORMATORI E QUESTIONARIO
•
63 persone (work in progress)
•
Questionario di 19 domande, 11 chiuse e 8 aperte
•
Questionario diviso in due parti:
• 1) variabili sociali e linguistiche
• 2) lexical items, speech acts e percezioni del comportamento linguistico personale,
del gruppo di appartenenza e della rappresentazione fittizia (cinema, TV)
DATI SUL CAMPIONE
Gender
Age
Male
57%
31-39
19%
14-18
5%
26-30
14%
Female
43%
19-25
62%
Educational background
Degree
48%
Master's
Degree
5%
High School
Diploma
47%
BILINGUISMO E LEGAMI CON L’ITALIA
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
Yes
10
5
0
Yes
No
Bilingual
33
30
Parents born in
Italy?
45
18
Both parents
are Italian
45
18
No
DEFINIZIONI DELL’ITALIANO DA PARTE DEI
NON-ITALIANI
30
30
25
20
18
18
18
18
15
Wop
15
Greaseball
Guinea
15
Dago
10
Guido
Mafia
5
Gino
0
Words to define Italian-Americans
WOP
•
Merriam-Webster -> Italian (usually offensive)
•
Wordreference -> cafone italiano (slang)
•
Urban Dictionary -> an epiteth used for those of Italian descent. WOP stands for WithOut
Papers. Many Italian immigrants had no papers to identify themselves and were branded
as WOPs (epiteto usato per persone di origine italiana. WOP sta per «senza documenti».
Molti emigranti non avevano documenti e furono quindi definiti WOPs)
GREASEBALL
•
Merriam-Webster -> a person of Hispanic or Mediterranean descent (usually offensive)
•
Urban Dictionary -> another derogatory term for an italian. A greaseball is someone who
looks like they don't take showers all that often. Italians seem to be naturally greasy and
unheigenic. Therefore this name was made to describe this certain breed of italians who
lack etiquette and basic hygeine.” [sic]
GUINEA
•
Urban dictionary -> The
most vile racial slur that can be used against an
Italian-American. Refers to the Guinea Coast of Africa; using this
slur is a very offensive way of implying that Italian-Americans are
non-whites (something we tend to get very defensive
about!!). Unlike the "N-word", which African-Americans sometimes
use to address each other, no Italian-American would ever address
another Italian-American using this word. Nor would they use the
word "wop" (also offensive, but not in a racial way). HOWEVER, it
IS common for Italian-Americans to refer to each other as "dago";
this is used the same way that blacks use the N-word with each
other.”
GUINEA AND GUIDO
• Urban dictionary -> Italian racial slur; Only for One Italian
to define another Italian. As Black People use the word
N*gga. Guineas and Guidos are NOT the same thing.
People usually say, Guidos are Italian. Not true. Guidos are
basically wanna-be Italians. Men that dress like the stereotypical
Italian or Italian American just to receive recognition by others.
Many people tend to call Italians "Guido". Best bet is to just not
call an Italian a Guinea if your NOT Italian, unless you want a
pissed of Italian wanting to kick your ass.
•
GUIDO
DICTIONARY)
A sad pathetic(URBAN
excuse for a male;
not necessarily of Italian descent, but most likely; usually native to
the New York/New Jersey Tri-State area.
WARDROBE: tight zipper shirts, tracksuits, designer jeans, fuzzy kangol hats, tiny hoop earrings, fake
gold chains, and related Euro-trash garb and tacky cheese-wear.
NATURAL HABITAT: Known to frequent Tri-State area malls looking for club gear to waste their week's
pay on (most likely spotted shopping at "Bang Bang" in Staten Island). During the day when not at their
food delivery, telemarketing, or construction job, can be located at their local gym tanning or lifting
weights. Can be found nightly at mainstream danceclubs they read about online (SF, Webster Hall,
Etc.). Most notable for cruising the Jersey shore in an old car (Honda, Mustang, etc.) which has been
tinted, painted and sports $1,000-$3,000 rims in a feeble attempt to look like new. Guido cars usually
have a boomin' system through which cheesy music like freestyle, commercial club/trance and hip-hop
(anything KTU plays) is loudly blasted.
GENETIC LINKS: Directly related to modern day urban-guidos, A.K.A. "wiggers," A.K.A. "wegros;"
urban-guidos are white males who once exhibited the traits referenced above, but have now instead
opted to keep it unreal, with wardrobes consisting of clothes from labels like FUBU and Rocawear
which they bought on sale at Macy's.
DAGO
•
Merriam-Webster -> a person of Italian or spanish descent (usually offensive)
•
Commento di un utente:
“Mick called Rocky dago in the first Rocky movie when Rocky gets a message from Mick
about Apollo looking for sparring partners. I wondered by the tone if it was meant to be
offensive or not”
ESPRESSIONI O PAROLE PIÙ COMUNI
RIPORTATE DAGLI INFORMATORI
• Formule di saluto (ciao, come va?, come stai?, che fai?, che
sucess?)
• Turpiloquio (stupido, favangul,sfatcheem, va fa napoli, t’amazz,
strunz, cabbados, mangiacake)
• Lessico del cibo (proshoot, antipast)
• Interiezioni (San Antonio!, mama mia, manangia, mizzica,
vergogna!)
• Atti linguistici regolativi (camina, mangia mangia, alestatati,
muov)
• Modi di dire (E bruna ma bedda, this is na brutta figura)
Film più popolari che presentano personaggi e
ambientazione italo-americana
60
50
The Godfather
Casino
A Bronx Tale
Donnie Brasco
Goodfellas
Other
40
30
20
10
0
Movies
Serie TV più popolari con personaggi italoamericani
45
45
40
The Sopranos
35
30
25
20
Everybody Loves
Raymond
Welcome Back
Carter
Other
18
15
10
3
5
0
TV Shows
3
PAROLE/ESPRESSIONI USATE DA PERSONAGGI
• Formule di saluto (salud, ciao, how you doin?)
• Lessico del cibo (antipast, salsiche)
• Turpiloquio
• Fatismi (Fuggedaboudit, You wanna piece o’ me?, Do
you know who I am?, He’s a friend of ours, Are you
talking to me?)
• Proverbi/ modi di dire (Leave the gun, take the cannoli,
It’s nothing personal, it’s only business)
Hai mai sentito queste parole/espressioni
fuori da cinemaTV?
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Yes
No
Not sure
Yes
No
Not sure
You
42
15
6
Others
21
33
6
SIMBOLI DI «ITALIANITÀ»
40
36
35
People
30
Family
25
Food
20
15
10
Soccer Team
15
15
12
12
12
Film
Language
12
Flag
6
6
Culture
Sports
5
0
Most important symbol
RISULTATI
• Atti illocutivi stereotipati
• Influenza reciproca fra uso e riproduzione nei media
• Conflitto di lealtà
• …. Made in Jersey? Jersey Shore?
While the shows and movies can be entertaining, I find
that they totally do not represent Italian-Americans AT
ALL. Italians are more than people who curse, cook,
drink wine, eat in large, obscene amounts, cheat on his
or her spouse, and of course involve themselves in
criminal activity. Italians discovered this country, we
invented the telephone, we have wonderful cinematic
accomplishments that DO NOT involve crime. We
were the creators of the MODERN WORLD through
the Renaissance!! Italian-Americans are highly
educated and SO SO SO MUCH MORE than what
popular culture believes us to be. There has to be a
way to change this.