Gloria Nardini, Che bella figura!: The power of performance in an Italian ladies' club in Chicago. (SUNY series in Speech Communication & SUNY series in Italian/American Studies.) Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1999. Pp. x, 164. Pb $19.95.

Abstract

In this book, Nardini presents “a ‘thick description’ of the Collandia Ladies' Club” from an ethnographic, feminist perspective (p. 127). Using data she gathered as a participant observer in this women's auxiliary to an Italian-American men's club in Chicago, Nardini shows that “examining language use in this ‘community of practice’ allows us to revise our notions of women as powerless users of language” (128). In fact, these immigrant and first-generation Lucchese-American club women are shown to wield a considerable amount of power over one another and over the men in the club by using communicative tactics such as indirect speech to support the cultural norms of the club community.