Giuseppe Emilio Rocconi's life narrative, The Story of My Life (1958), represents the hardships of immigration and assimilation through meditations on home, family, and religion. I read his narrative in contrast with white elite narratives that express nostalgia for sharecropping and the segregation era. I see his narrative as a reflection upon the costs of integrating into the white patriarchal economy and his sense of being neither fully Italian nor fully American.
","abstract_html":"<p>Giuseppe Emilio Rocconi's life narrative, The Story of My Life (1958), represents the hardships of immigration and assimilation through meditations on home, family, and religion. I read his narrative in contrast with white elite narratives that express nostalgia for sharecropping and the segregation era. I see his narrative as a reflection upon the costs of integrating into the white patriarchal economy and his sense of being neither fully Italian nor fully American.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Santucci, Bethany"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"M.A.","degree_level":"Thesis","degree_discipline":"English","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Steeby, Elizabeth","Piano, Doreen","Lackey, Kris"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2011,"date_issued":"2011-05-20T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2011-05-20T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T05:29:24Z","subjects":["Life narrative","segregation","race","class","gender","New South","doubleness","identity","Italian","immigrant","isolation","Catholicism","sharecropping"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/1344","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Steeby, Elizabeth","Piano, Doreen","Lackey, Kris"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Santucci, Bethany"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["English"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["M.A."]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Life narrative","segregation","race","class","gender","New South","doubleness","identity","Italian","immigrant","isolation","Catholicism","sharecropping"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/1344"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Giuseppe Emilio Rocconi's life narrative, The Story of My Life (1958), represents the hardships of immigration and assimilation through meditations on home, family, and religion. I read his narrative in contrast with white elite narratives that express nostalgia for sharecropping and the segregation era. I see his narrative as a reflection upon the costs of integrating into the white patriarchal economy and his sense of being neither fully Italian nor fully American.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["\"Against My Destiny\": Reading an Italian Immigrant's Memoir in the Early 20th-century South"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Steeby, Elizabeth","Piano, Doreen","Lackey, Kris"],"dc:creator":["Santucci, Bethany"],"dc:description.abstract":["Giuseppe Emilio Rocconi's life narrative, The Story of My Life (1958), represents the hardships of immigration and assimilation through meditations on home, family, and religion. I read his narrative in contrast with white elite narratives that express nostalgia for sharecropping and the segregation era. I see his narrative as a reflection upon the costs of integrating into the white patriarchal economy and his sense of being neither fully Italian nor fully American.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/1344"],"dc:subject":["Life narrative","segregation","race","class","gender","New South","doubleness","identity","Italian","immigrant","isolation","Catholicism","sharecropping"],"dc:title":["\"Against My Destiny\": Reading an Italian Immigrant's Memoir in the Early 20th-century South"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["English"],"thesis:degree_level":["Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["M.A."]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T05:29:24Z"}