The history of Italian American literary criticism is a problematic phenomenon for a variety of reasons. It refers obviously to the history of literary criticism devoted to the written text by Italian Americans. On the other hand, it can also be perceived as literary criticism by Italian Americans on, presumably, texts by Italian Americans. Further still, in a continued extrapolation of thoughts, we might endure a process that could prove to be never-ending. It is this apparent interpretive conundrum of how we might characterize the approach to the literary text that undergirds a good part of the intentions behind this special issue of the Italian American Review. Given that the IAR has now begun to accept submissions of literary criticism, the notion of a reconsideration arrives at a propitious moment.
Criticism of the Italian American written text has been around for as long as the creative text has been....