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Title: States of Grace: Senegalese in Italy and the New European Immigration by Donald Martin Carter ISBN: 0-8166-2543-3 Publisher: University of Minnesota Press Pub. Date: 01 December, 1997 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $21.95

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Average Customer Rating: 3.5 (2 reviews)

Rating: 5
Summary: States of Grace
Comment: This is a highly original and well-researched account of the recent problems of immigration in Italy and in Western Europe more generally. Carter's penetrating analysis reveals the deeply conflictual relationship between Italian culture, the Italian Left, and African immigrants.

Rating: 2
Summary: Carter's Invisible Immigrants
Comment: An endorsement on the back cover of STATES OF GRACE describes it as "perhaps the first... in a new phase of anthropological research carried out on African migrants in European cities." This fact alone should make Carter's study inherently valuable. But readers looking for a window into the world of his ostensible subjects--the Senegalese of Turin--may come away disappointed. Only one of the book's seven chapters concentrates on these immigrants in any depth; the remaining six offer up disquisitions on Italian history and society, criminality and marginality, and the writings of Antonio Gramsci. The Senegalese themselves virtually disappear from view, obscured in a haze of social theory.

To his credit, Carter's analysis of Italy and things Italian is well researched and persuasive. I especially enjoyed the parallels he draws between stereotyped images of the Italian south and stereotypes of Africa. He quotes the saying "Africa begins at Rome" to illustrate northern Italian prejudices. But if Africa begins at Rome where Carter's study is concerned, it pretty much ends at Palermo; anything beyond that is given rather short shrift.

This problem would be more tolerable if the text itself weren't marred all too often by errors of style and syntax. Otherwise authoritative declarations are frequently undermined by these mistakes. Consider this one: "The economic, social, and political problems of 'over there'--that is, some imagined space beyond the West--is now 'over here,' a part of the very rhythm of life in Western democracies." A fine premise, but lacking subject-verb agreement, and unfortunately this sentence is no exception. Another example: "The growth of Mouridism is somewhat dependent on the dynamic increase in its numbers." Well, yes, that's why it's called "growth." I think ultimate blame here lies not with Carter but with his editors at the University of Minnesota Press, who apparently couldn't be bothered to examine his dissertation manuscript closely enough to catch the most basic faults. One wonders how many other, more substantial errors got past them.

Still, STATES OF GRACE is a noteworthy and ambitious study that should interest scholars of Italian social history, popular media, and Gramsci. Those of us hoping for enlightenment on a particular immigrant community, or for insight into the slippery notion called "transnationalism," would be better served elsewhere. No doubt someday we shall be.

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