Books in the Robert Viscusi Essay series

An exploration of the Italian references and inspirations found across the writings of Thomas Jefferson.“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”—Thomas Jefferson, Declaration of Independence“[T]u vedrai noi d’una massa di carne tutti la carne avere e da uno medesimo creatore tutte l’anime con iguali forze, con iguali potenze, con iguali vertù create. La vertù primieramente noi, che tutti nascemmo e nasciamo iguali, ne distinse...”“[Y]ou will see that we all have flesh from the same mass of flesh and from the same creator all have souls created with equal forces, with equal powers, and with equal capabilities. Capability is the first thing that distinguished us, who all have been born and are born equal...”—Giovanni Boccaccio, Decameron

In this unique volume of essays, three Italian-Canadian-American scholars of the post-WWII diaspora, who among them span a wide expanse of geographic and cultural ground, reflect on the meaning of triangulated identities. What are the processes of translation required by personal lives, consciousness, scholarship, and modes of representation, lived in such a context? At their simplest, they must confront blended or hybridized environments, geographic, cultural, and temporal straddling, "chronic otherness," and the apparently contradictory forms of invisibility and hyper-visibility, peripherality and multi-centredness. As a basic navigational tool, cartographic "triangulation" allows these authors to explore their own personal geo-cultural positionings and to seek equipoise in an equilateral triangle. All three bring direct experience and heightened knowledge of the trans-diasporic perspective, which has left them well-prepared for the challenges of an increasingly globalized reality. Even so, such positioning does not deny an elusive sense of home and belonging; their journeys have also taught them how to feel at home in the world.