Reading Calvino in the garden and speaking Italian in the courtyard: The making of Italian Americans in two Italian American novels, with help from Italy and Italo Calvino's 'Fiabe Italiane' (Anna Monardo, Tony Ardizzone)

As Italian American writers, Anna Monardo and Tony Ardizzone explore the connection between language and the hybrid identity of Italian Americans. Ardizzone's chosen mode of narration is the folktale. He both uses old ones and creates his own, telling them in such a way that one sees the language and cultural heritage of the immigrants. In Italy, these folktales can be found in Italo Calvino's Fiabe Italiane. By reading Calvino, one can see how Ardizzone has mined and used the oral traditions of his ancestors. Monardo uses the acquisition of the Italian language of her protagonist as a widening of social space in a Bildungsroman novel that takes place two generations after the large immigration wave. This examination of the Italian language looks at its relation to Italy, to America, and to the confluence of the two in social, historical, and political contexts.