A prolific writer in various genres, Dorothy Bryant (1930–2017) has earned a notable place in the literary tradition of Italian American women. Leading scholars including Mary Jo Bona (1999, 2010), Edvige Giunta (2002), and Mary Frances Pipino (2000) have produced excellent criticism exploring Bryant's engagement with ethnic identity—the recovery and re-creation of italianità, family relatedness, cultural trauma, and survival—as well as with gender and feminism, both of which are connected with immigration, ethnicity, and class. The scholarly focus has been on complex representations of Italian American women in Bryant's novels and her early contributions to the ongoing collective literary project of “questioning and redefining, in unexpected and probing ways, traditional representations of Italian American women” (Giunta 2002, 33). The scholarship addresses teaching and learning in Bryant's writing insofar as it relates to these subjects. In this article, I shift the focus...

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