My problem with reading "City Lights: Immigrant Women and the Rise of the Movies", besides the title, was that I craved listed sources, and there are none to be found. It is as if Elizabeth Ewen sent her husband to a nursing home in Bensonhurst to talk to all the old Italian women, and then they wrote this essay. Plus, the quotes are blindly sprinkled throughout the essay; some quotes don't support the point the Ewens are trying to make. I'm a student, I know the trick of bending your essay to meet a quote. For example, the last quote on pg.167 from Robert Chapin doesn't add to the Ewens' arguement immigrant mothers controled the wealth. I understand that the majority of new immigrants to America between 1890 and 1920 were Italians, but where is the African-American experience, or the Russian experience?
Ok, so the Ewens should have changed the title to indicate this was just going to be an Italian immigrant view, but the biggest question this text raised was: Why is the relationship to the cinema important to American people and Amerian history outside Italian-Americans at the turn of the century? I wanted more: How has this relationship shaped a generation, or did it? I don't know how greatly this ability to identify so strongly with movies and establish a community inside the movie houses effected Italian Amerians differently than other immigrant populations that came to America later.
The stories in this essay and the movie Style Wars resinated for me and similar because both show a minority population with their hands in the start and developement of huge international social movements: the cinema and hip-hop.
PS has anyone seen this "Monetize" tab that's appeared on blogger (maybe I've just seen it for the first time.) You can make money by allowing advertising on your page - capitalism at work.
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Hi Frank,
ReplyDeleteInteresting and lively entry, as usual! First off, to address your concern about sources, I'm sure the article did have sources but was not included in the excerpt from the anthology it was published in. (You may want to even ask Professor Ewen about this.)
As for your concern about the fact that they are focusing on Italian (as well as eastern European) wave of immigrants from the late 1800s, I think it is important to study because that particular wave of immigration in American history did coincide with the rise of movies, and, as the Ewens point out, did play a large role in this community. It would be an interesting and revealing project to compare these experiences with how other immigrant or minority groups experience movies throughout the 20th century and today, not to mention that it also helps us to understand further the influence movies can play in our lives and experiences (arguably the larger point of this article).
-Ariana
P.S. What about Munsterberg? How would his analysis of film connect to this reading? To our class discussions?