Culture & Power in Italian/American Foodways in Tina De Rosa's Paper Fish

Abstract

Tina De Rosa's novel, Paper Fish, examines the cultural significance of the Italian immigrant family through their relationship to food. In the main female characters, Doria, Sarah, Carmolina, and Doriana BellaCasa, De Rosa exhibits the power struggles relating to Italian and Italian/American foodways. Initially, these practices seem nourishing and comforting to the reader. The novel shows, however, through Sarah, the Lithuanian/American outsider in the family, and Carmolina and Doriana, Sarah's daughters, that the foodways of grandmother Doria perpetuate the Italian/American culture but also stifle the individual.