Curaggia: Writing by Women of Italian Descent

Carol A. Stos is an assistant professor of Spanish at Laurentian
University.

Curaggia is an anthology about courage: the courage to speak up and to
speak out, the courage to dare to question, to accuse, to reject, to
accept, to choose. A collection subtitled Writing by Women of Italian
Descent presupposes issues of cultural and ethnic identity. Curaggia
leaps beyond the heart of gender, sexuality, and race, into the intimacy
of family life, and across the visible and invisible borders of
geography, society, and generations. Passionately and often painfully
honest, funny and tragic, full of discovery and loss, love and loathing,
rage and tenderness, these women, in their stories, poetry, and artwork,
reveal the complex and challenging circumstances of being female and of
Italian descent in Canada and the States.

The contributions range from polished short stories, excerpts from
longer prose works, and works still in progress to poetry, memoir,
journals, and articles of an academic nature. There are photographs as
art, and photographs of collages, paintings, and other types of artwork.
The richness and variety of the works presented is representative of the
many and varied multiple roles, interests, talents, experiences, and
professions of the women who created them. Curaggia makes a profound
statement about the reality of women of Italian descent in North
America, and is a significant and provocative contribution to the
continuing discourse on classicism and racism in both the feminist and
mainstream milieux.