“Italian Signs, American Streets is nothing short of a landmark in Italian/American literary studies. Lively, elegant, readable, and engaging, Italian Signs is the first major work in nearly one-quarter century to posit a theory for reading Italian/American literary works and organizing them within their own ethnic/American canon.” — Steven J. Belluscio , MELUS
“Italian Signs, American Streets is a milestone in both ethnic studies and Italian American writing. . . . Theoretically sophisticated in its overview of major approaches to ethnic literature and filled with elegant, original formulations, it is a landmark work that will prove seminal for anyone working in contemporary American literature. — Josephine Hendin, Modern Fiction Studies
“Italian Signs, American Streets takes enormous strides forward in formulating a dynamic vision of literary ethnicity . . . . Situating lively readings of major texts in both a historical and literary context, [Gardaphé] achieves an ethnography of Italian American narrative that is essential reading. His approach provides a model for representing ethnic self-fashioning as a dynamic individual, social, and literary process.” — Josephine Gattuso Hendin , American Literary History
“This study not only maps the field . . . it does a superb job in situating Italian American writing within its own historic complexities of remembered transition and place.” — A. Robert Lee , Immigrants & Minorities
“Bursting with energy and insights. Fred Gardaphé has added a powerful and original chapter to the literary history of modern America.” — Frank Lentricchia