| Description |
438 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 24 cm |
| Contents |
Italians to Italian Americans : escaping the "southern problem" -- The Mafia : Mediterranean menace, American myth -- A genre is born : the appeal of pure power -- Don Corleone was my grandfather -- From mean streets to suburban meadow : The Sopranos rewrites the genre -- Act like a man : sex and gender in the Mafia myth -- Moulanyans, Medigahns, and wonder bread wops : race and racism on-screen and off -- Cultural holocaust or national myth? : the politics of antidefamation |
| Summary |
"In An Offer We Can't Refuse, George De Stefano takes a close look at the origins and prevalence of the Mafia mythos in America. Beginning with a consideration of Italian emigration in the early twentieth century and the fear and prejudice - among both Americans and Italians - that informed our earliest conception of what was at the time the largest immigrant group to enter the United States, De Stefano examines how these impressions laid the groundwork for the images so familiar to us today." |
|
"In a unique fusion of history, personal memoir, reportage, and cultural criticism, De Stefano explores and illuminates the variety and allure of mafia stories - from Coppola's romanticized paeans to Scorsese's bloody realism to the bourgeois world of David Chase's Sopranos - while discussing the cultural richness often contained in these works. At the same time, he addresses the lingering power of this reductive stereotyping and the lamentable impact it has in both everyday life and the entertainment world. The end result is a deeper understanding of our ongoing dance with La Cosa Nostra."--BOOK JACKET |
| Notes |
Formerly CIP. Uk |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index |
| Subject |
Mafia -- United States.
|
|
Italian Americans -- Social conditions.
|
| LC no. |
2005012667 |
| ISBN |
0571211577 hardcover alkaline paper |
|
9780571211579 |
|
