The Italian immigrant experience in knee-deep in symbols, stereotypes, paradoxes, and dichotomies. To fully grasp the complex emotions of the immigrant, Serra states that "we need to present not dry and naked historical facts, but facts that are swollen with imagination, dripping illusions..." This is the essence of the imago migrantionis and the core of Serra's new book, The Imagined Immigrant: Images of Italian Emigration to the United States Between 1890 and 1924. From an historical, literary, and cinematic perspective, Italian emigration to America has been thoroughly documented, but such records tend to leave out the conditions of the immigrant psyche. The imago migrantionis fills this void in Italian immigration history through an extensive compilation of imagery and imaginary "data."
Although the accounts may be subjective, they present a crucial piece of history, one that has a beating heart.
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