5 - An attack strategy for Italian language

Study of la bella lingua is on the increase in the universities of the United States of America

Let's pick a few random quotes from U.S. newspapers.
"There has never been, ever since New York's foundation, such a lowly and ignorant class of immigrants as Southern Italians." (New York Times, March 5, 1882)
"These Sicilian spies and cowards, descendants of gangsters and murderers, who brought to this country the institutes of outlaws, the customs of cut-throats, the secrecy of the societies of their country, are a scourge without remission for us." (New York Times, March 12, 1891)
"There is a quantity of organic diseases in Italy, and many deformities, many lame and blind, many people with sick eyes. These children are displayed by their parents or relatives to elicit pity and charity from passers-by." (Leslie's Illustrated, March 23, 1901)
"It is well known that Italians are great criminals. Italy is first in Europe for violent crimes." (New York Times, May 14, 1909).
"This country does not need the man with the spade, dirty of the soil he's digging and driven by a mind marginally superior to that of the ox his brother." (North American Revue, May 1925).
A couple of years ago the Italic Studies Institute of New York examined over 1,000 Hollywood movies dating from 1928 to the present, portraying Italian characters or scenes about Italians. Only 27 percent of the films send a positive image; the remaining 73 percent shows Italians as mostly criminals, and then unrefined buffoons, stupid and bigoted.
Although the New York Times of today would not dream (we hope) of printing the same words it did one century ago, the collective imagination of the Americans long included the negative stereotypes about Italian immigrants. Cinema, a very faithful probe of collective minds, shows it clearly. For instance, in Avanti!, the 1972 movie set in Ischia, one can find an unctuous hotel manager, a blackmailing Sicilian valet, peasant accomplices that dispose of corpses, and the unavoidable Southern-Italian moustached chambermaid. Also, in Harlem Nights (1989) the very corrupt police sergeant bears the name of Phil Cantone, hardly a Scandinavian surname.
We wonder how it was that, against such heavy and resistant stereotypes, and with the melting pot policy of Americanizing all those who landed at Ellis Island, the Italian language managed to survive. How is it that, out of the 20 million people living in New York City's metropolitan area, 1.5 million can speak Italian?
Simone Marchesi, who teaches Italian Language and Literature at Sarah Lawrence College in Broxville, New York, shows little wonder. "We can say that Italy has acquired, in the last 10-15 years, a relevant role in the international community, and that the presence of Italian companies and institutions in the USA has grown increasingly massive and visible. In my opinion, another aspect of the problem must be considered."
Which aspect?
"The people of the United States now know more about Italy than in the past. No big efforts are required, walking around is enough to find something Italian even without looking for it. But interesting things are going on in the universities as well."
Such as?
"A great differentiation is under way within Italian Studies. On the one hand you have the traditional professors with their 'classical' approach to Italy - monuments, literature, opera - on the other you have a more modern approach due to visits, movies, books, TV programmes. However, there is no conflict, and here lies the interesting part. The most successful departments are those that manage to integrate both approaches to Italy. Let's also add that these courses are attended by students who have rid themselves of the anti-Italian stereotypes of their forefathers, and so now they regard Italy and its language with a previously unknown interest."
As far as I know, until recently the U.S. education system seemed hostile towards its Italian counterpart. Bolstered by their technological primacy, Americans dismissed the humanistic approach Italian universities reserved even to scientific disciplines. Has anything changed from this standpoint?
"Much has changed. I would call that attitude a sort of awe. Hostility was a consequence. Actually, U.S. universities were upset by the fact that Italian researchers were perfectly able to work here, while U.S. researchers had much more trouble adjusting to Italian universities. This generated uneasiness that expressed itself with hostility and occasionally a refusal of Italian education methods. Nowadays this has disappeared."
Why?
"Because now U.S. universities are turning out people who can easily work in Italy, both in universities and companies. Also, the constant exchange of students and teachers has led to openings that were inconceivable until recently. Posturing has been discarded, replaced by a peer-to-peer relation. Parity isn't restricted to euros and dollars. This balanced situation is favouring the diffusion of Italian. Take my students, 80 percent of them have already visited Italy, and most of them want to go there to complete their training. Now, I cannot quantify this situation, but I feel confident in saying that the trend has consolidated."
How much can this be due to a 'Benigni effect'?
"You know, I don't believe such an effect can boost the study of Italian. Life Is Beautiful is undoubtedly an excellent movie that had a great success even here, but it was shot and set in Italy, or anyway in Europe. In short, there is no connection to American reality. On the other hand, in recent years nine films out of 10 include elements recalling present-day Italy - a classy store, a Ferrari car, a brand-name suit - and this is really what boosts the image of Italy."
Are the Sopranos a boost or a hindrance?
"I don't believe the Sopranos have a negative impact on the image of Italians abroad either; at least judging from my students. They smile like with every hyperbole, removed from reality. They are aware that some depictions can include a pinch of truth, but they also know that generalizing is wrong: such situations do not depict all Italian-Americans. The knee-jerk association 'Italians-equals-mafiosi' that plagued us for so long has broken down. Moreover, as I said, my students go back and forth from Italy and can distinguish fiction from fact."
Edoardo Lebano, Professor Emeritus of Italian Language and Literature at Indiana University, prepared an important research on behalf of the American Association of Teachers of Italian (AATI) that was later published by Soleil Publishing House, Report on the Teaching of Italian in American Institutions of Higher Learning (1983-1996). In order to collect the data, professor Lebano sent a questionnaire to 650 U.S. colleges and universities that offer courses in Italian, a significant number even for the United States. The research, in summary, found that in the fall of 1996 (the most recent covered by the survey) over 45,000 students were studying the Italian language in those education institutions. "No more 30 percent of them were of Italian heritage," clarifies Lebano. "Italian in the USA is therefore studied by more people from other ethnic groups than from our own."
Why is this, professor?
"Because Italian is the language of sophisticated culture, and also for the other reasons highlighted by Tullio De Mauro in his survey, first of all its so-called social expendability."
In which states in particular is Italian being studied?
"In 44 of them. The area around New York City has the highest number of students enrolled in Italian Studies. We might say that those are areas where the Italian community has historically been present longer. But an interesting phenomenon is that the study of Italian is expanding in some regions - the Southeast, the Prairies, the Rockies, the West - where Italian-American communities are very small or non-existent. Nowadays a student of Italian has endless opportunities for perfecting it, not just in the USA but also in Italy, thanks to joint programmes between American and Italian universities. The possibility of studying Italian in Italy, a perennial favourite of Americans regardless of stereotypes, and having the courses validated, are an added value of Italian language. Its success can also be attributed to 'subjective' elements."
What do you mean by that?
"Take the university where I teach, Indiana University, for instance. Its Department of Italian Studies is among the largest and most important of the United States and yet Italian is not taught in the high schools of the State of Indiana. Therefore our students encounter our language only in university, when they aren't children anymore. They choose a course of Italian because they want to, not because their parents enrol them. However, I also believe that Italian Studies in Indiana have been favoured also by the good work done by our Department. What I mean is that course attendance increases or decreases according to who's teaching."
From your position as 'professor emeritus', can you tell us whether the average level of the teachers of Italian in the USA is good or mediocre?
"The United States is quite big, and I would be presumptuous if I dared to give an objective judgement valid for all the States. Anyway, I can say that if the teaching holds and even increases this implies that the teachers are good. More could, and should, be done to help them improve further."
Who should do more, Italy or the United States?
"They should each do their part. The USA should create the conditions for the study of foreign languages, including Italian, to become an organic education choice. Italy should devise a real strategy for promoting its language abroad, not relying on sporadic initiatives. Maybe in Italy the return, not only in terms of image, of a widespread diffusion of Italian, is underestimated. Business would profit from it as well as culture."
In addition to devising this linguistic strategy, what could Italy do?
"I'd say that a strategy of attack, not only from a linguistic standpoint. Italy should aggressively pursue the same policy of the last decade. It should support the professional training of teachers of Italian abroad, in particular of those teaching in secondary schools; assisting Italian teachers willing to come and teach on this shore of the Atlantic; further expanding the role of the Istituti Italiani di Cultura, whose action is precious even with their tight budgets. Finally, it should captivate the youth by satisfying their cultural needs."
Please clarify.
"They need more Italian cinema, music, theatre. Folklore companies should be helped to bring outside of Italy the cultural patrimony of the regions, a largely unexplored field. Here, much is known about Italy, but much less about its greatest variety, i.e. the regions. I've been away from Italy for the past 45 years, even though I frequently go back, but every time I say these things to Italian colleagues or directors of Istituti di Cultura the bureaucracy rears its head and puts the brakes on every promotional effort. Often, I've been told that there is no money for funding those initiatives. There is so much red tape and so little money because there is no strategy, and Italy should devise one before it is too late."
Too late?
"We're missing a golden opportunity. Italy, its culture and its language are under the spotlight today. Will this last forever? I don't think so. We need to rise to the occasion. I must add, however, that much more could be done, at least in the United States, if we had the support of the families."
Isn't it so?
"Actually, if every Italian-American family encouraged its children to study Italian, ours would be the second most numerous linguistic group of the United States. This is no paradox, trust me. Our own community refuses to support it, contenting itself with spaghetti, pizza, Columbus Day. In many cases something very strange occurs: many students of Italian heritage who studied Italian in high school drop the subject in university. They think that what they learned, in addition to their heritage, is more than enough. Don't you agree that's far too little?"

Publication Date: 2003-01-19
Story Location: http://tandemnews.com/viewstory.php?storyid=2253