Machines are Us: Joseph Papaleo and the Literature of Sprawl

Abstract

This essay examines the work of Italian American fiction writer Joseph Papaleo in the context of suburbanization, globalization, and ethnic heritage and identity. In doing so I demonstrate that Papaleo's fiction provides understanding of how Italian Americans have looked at Italy as they experienced the alienation of a consumer culture. Papaleo's fiction presents a mixed nostalgia for what Italy represents and recognition that it, too, like the United States, confronts continuous auto-dependent sprawl. Papaleo adds a suburban focus to the more frequently urban-centered literature of Italian Americans and he adds an ethic perspective to the predominantly Anglo American literature of the suburbs. His 1970 novel Out of Place depicts a materially successful Italian American, Gene Santoro, who cannot fill a deeper spiritual need in either the United States or Italy.