Italian American Women in Italian dubbing : the case of Spike Lee's Summer of Sam

Italians and Americans of Italian descent have been the subject of a considerable number of American films since the times of the silent era. Throughout the years such representations have contributed to creating stereotyped images of Italian Americans, which have been portrayed in various film genres. Even though it is indeed true that cinematic stereotypes of Italian Americans are constructed mainly around male characters (the mobster, the latin lover, the prizefighter, the cook), it is also a fact that women often play a relevant role in these films, and most of the times their images are stereotyped too. The role of Italian American women has commonly been represented in Hollywood cinema as falling into two separate and distinct categories: the wives and mothers on the one hand (virtuous women who take care of the house chores, raise the kids, tolerate their husbands' unfaithfulness), and the lovers or whores on the other (glaringly dressed, wearing heavy make-up, and lacking the finesse and pure qualities characterizing the wives/mothers). This dichotomy is particular evident in the mafia genre (De Stefano 2006: 208), but not exclusively there. Spike Lee has often shown interest in portraying Italian Americans in his films (Do the Right Thing, Jungle Fever, Summer of Sam, She Hate Me, none of which belongs to the mafia genre), and has been accused of perpetuating negative stereotypes related to this specific ethnic group (Zagarrio 2002: 126-130). The male characters starring Summer of Sam (1999) indeed present many of the negative traits often attributed to Italian American men (Canadé Sautman 2002: 18-23), and, likewise, women are presented as falling into the stereotypical categories mentioned above. Besides conveying their ethnic origins, women's speech connotes their belonging to one or the other category at various levels. The language they speak, therefore, is a powerful tool in the construction of their identity. This paper intends to investigate the characteristics of the varieties spoken by the different female characters of the film, and the strategies used in Italian dubbing to transpose - and sometimes to even reinforce - the dichotomy that characterizes their representation.