Fathers, Fathering, and Fatherhood in the Italian American Narrative: An Introduction

In this introductory essay, Elisa Bordin and Theodora Patrona establish a framework for a special issue of Diasporic Italy by contrasting the "absent or fugitive" fathers of canonical white American literature with the central, abundant father figures found in Italian American narratives. The authors argue that while motherhood has been extensively researched, the Italian American father serves as a critical yet understudied site of struggle between biology and culture, Old World and New World. These paternal figures often embody "oceanic histories" of migration, acting as the primary agents who pass on ethnic surnames and, consequently, both the visibility and vulnerability of diasporic belonging.