At the cross-over of Italian and North American lingua-cultural frameworks the complex issue of national identities plays a pivotal role, which is variously represented in media communication. National identities are not a clear-cut and a once-and-for-all affair: they can change over time or come into conflict with one another. In the world of the media, clichéd portrayals have led to the construal of frozen ‘Imagined Communities’ (Anderson 1983), which are exploited especially in advertising. Stereotyping is an effective way of simplifying and diffusing complex notions: peoples’ way of thinking is more easily influenced by representing marked clichéd traits – in our case conventional images that revolve around Italian Americans collective identity. Americans of Italian heritage are frequently represented through anachronistic behavioural models, such as the ethnocentric sense of family, fixation on food, and mafia. When exposed to overused representations on a regular basis, viewers a-critically absorb the biased content which is being communicated. In this perspective, among others, Gerbner’s cultivation theory (1993, 2002) maintains that media are responsible for shaping or ‘cultivating’ viewers’ conceptions of social reality; we can say that in TV commercials and print ads the perceptual expectations of the audience seem to be not only met, but reinforced, according to the requirements of the advertised goods. Thus, a-priori cultural etiquettes are perpetuated, regardless of a multifaceted, everdeveloping reality. The present study investigated in an evaluative semantic (Hunston &Thompson 2000) and genderized discourse analysis perspective (Martin & White 2005; Bednarek & Martin 2010; Fleitz 2010) the frozen representation of Italian American women in US advertising as compared to their contemporary identities. The next step of our on going research project is to administer a questionnaire to a sample of 100 American Italian and 100 Italian young women focussing on their recognition/perception of those stereotypes. The research hypothesis is that their responses will highlight a consistent shift of attitude in self-representation especially so far as traditional/anachronistic roles are concerned. References Anderson, B. 1983. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London and New York: Verso. Bednarek, M. & J. Martin (eds) 2010. New Discourse on Language: Functional Perspectives on Multimodality, Identity and Affiliation. London/New York: Continuum. Fleitz, E. 2010. Cooking Codes: Cookbook Discourses as Women’s Rhetorical Practices. In Present Tense: A Journal of Rhetoric in Societ: vol 1Fall 2010. Gerbner, G. et al. 1993.The Global Media Debate: Its Rise, Fall, and Renewal. Norwood: Apex Publications. Gerbner G. 2002. Growing up with television: cultivation process. In J. Bryant & D. Zillman (eds) Media effects. Advances in theory and research. LEA: Hillsdale, NJ. Hunston S., Thompson G (eds.) 2000. Evaluation in Text: Authorial Stance and the Construction of Discourse. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Martin, J.R. & White, P.R.R. 2005. The Language of Evaluation, Appraisal in English. London & New York: Palgrave, Macmillan

Spaghetti ragu is ready: clichéd representations of Italian American women in US commercials

ABBAMONTE, Lucia;
2011

Abstract

At the cross-over of Italian and North American lingua-cultural frameworks the complex issue of national identities plays a pivotal role, which is variously represented in media communication. National identities are not a clear-cut and a once-and-for-all affair: they can change over time or come into conflict with one another. In the world of the media, clichéd portrayals have led to the construal of frozen ‘Imagined Communities’ (Anderson 1983), which are exploited especially in advertising. Stereotyping is an effective way of simplifying and diffusing complex notions: peoples’ way of thinking is more easily influenced by representing marked clichéd traits – in our case conventional images that revolve around Italian Americans collective identity. Americans of Italian heritage are frequently represented through anachronistic behavioural models, such as the ethnocentric sense of family, fixation on food, and mafia. When exposed to overused representations on a regular basis, viewers a-critically absorb the biased content which is being communicated. In this perspective, among others, Gerbner’s cultivation theory (1993, 2002) maintains that media are responsible for shaping or ‘cultivating’ viewers’ conceptions of social reality; we can say that in TV commercials and print ads the perceptual expectations of the audience seem to be not only met, but reinforced, according to the requirements of the advertised goods. Thus, a-priori cultural etiquettes are perpetuated, regardless of a multifaceted, everdeveloping reality. The present study investigated in an evaluative semantic (Hunston &Thompson 2000) and genderized discourse analysis perspective (Martin & White 2005; Bednarek & Martin 2010; Fleitz 2010) the frozen representation of Italian American women in US advertising as compared to their contemporary identities. The next step of our on going research project is to administer a questionnaire to a sample of 100 American Italian and 100 Italian young women focussing on their recognition/perception of those stereotypes. The research hypothesis is that their responses will highlight a consistent shift of attitude in self-representation especially so far as traditional/anachronistic roles are concerned. References Anderson, B. 1983. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London and New York: Verso. Bednarek, M. & J. Martin (eds) 2010. New Discourse on Language: Functional Perspectives on Multimodality, Identity and Affiliation. London/New York: Continuum. Fleitz, E. 2010. Cooking Codes: Cookbook Discourses as Women’s Rhetorical Practices. In Present Tense: A Journal of Rhetoric in Societ: vol 1Fall 2010. Gerbner, G. et al. 1993.The Global Media Debate: Its Rise, Fall, and Renewal. Norwood: Apex Publications. Gerbner G. 2002. Growing up with television: cultivation process. In J. Bryant & D. Zillman (eds) Media effects. Advances in theory and research. LEA: Hillsdale, NJ. Hunston S., Thompson G (eds.) 2000. Evaluation in Text: Authorial Stance and the Construction of Discourse. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Martin, J.R. & White, P.R.R. 2005. The Language of Evaluation, Appraisal in English. London & New York: Palgrave, Macmillan
File in questo prodotto:
Non ci sono file associati a questo prodotto.

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11591/211139
Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? ND
  • Scopus ND
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? ND
social impact