(Per)Forming Italian American (In)Famous Ties: Revisiting the “Mean” Streets through Louisa Ermelino’s Spring Street Trilogy

Abstract

Abstract Italian American iconic images of cultural and gender identity are analyzed as a performative practice in Louisa Ermelino’s Spring Street Trilogy, which challenges traditional senses of identity by situating masculine and feminine archetypes within wider structures of power. In contrast to the trope of the “mean” streets traditionally associated with men’s urban performances, Ermelino’s three novels interrogate normative gender roles and ethnic affiliations. This representation is generated from the vantage point of the microcosm of a street, which is therefore worth analyzing as a recurring trope of the author’s work.