«Il Progresso Italo-Americano» and Its Readership: A Critical and Literary Analysis
This paper aims to examine «Il Progresso Italo-Americano» from a literary perspective, focusing on the period between 1884 and 1900. To this end, all the serialized novels published in the newspaper during this timeframe have been catalogued (title, author, start and end dates of publication), along with a significant number of short stories and poems. All issues were accessed through the digital catalog of the Center for Research Libraries of Chicago. This list proves to be significant because, by analyzing the main characteristics of these texts — both the points of convergence within this corpus and, more importantly, the most important differences —, it becomes possible not only to reconstruct the tastes of a specific readership, namely that of first-generation Italian immigrants, but also to suggest that within the Italian colony there may have existed two (or more) distinct audiences, each with its own cultural needs and expectations, reassessment of some of the dominant stereotypes that have long shaped the history of Italian immigration, offering instead a more nuanced and complex portrait of Italian American culture. On the other hand, it reaffirms the crucial role that newspapers and literature (particularly poetry, the only genre to feature works produced in America and specifically conceived for the immigrant readership) played in shaping the collective identity of Italian communities abroad. Finally, examining the most frequently published authors offers valuable insight into the dominant literary trends in Italy during the period under consideration.
Brando Francesco Bonsanti is a Ph.D. candidate in North American literature at Roma Tre University. His research project is titled A matter of identity: the representation of labour in Italian American Literature (supervisor: Professor Sabrina Vellucci; co-supervisor: Professor Fred Gardaphé). His interests are focused on Italian American literature, Italian emigration literature, and working-class literature and culture. He graduated in Italian Literature from the University of Milan with a thesis on literature published in «Il Progresso Italo-Americano» (supervisor: Professor Martino Marazzi). He is a member of IASA (Italian American Studies Association) and AISNA (Associazione Italiana di Studi Nord Americani). In 2025, he published an article titled Il «Progresso Italo-Americano» e il suo pubblico: Un’analisi critica e letteraria in Forum Italicum. In same year, he was awarded the Pietro “Pete” Panto Fellowship by the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute for his Ph.D research project.
