Italian American Identity and Narrative Refiguration in Carole Maso's Ghost Dance and AVA

Both in _Ghost Dance_ and _AVA_ Carole Maso treats Italian American ethnicity as one of the interlacing strands that comprise the protagonists'' multifaceted identities. The essay analyzes the relationship between the representation of Italian American (or, more broadly, "ethnic") identity and Maso''s "spacious" conception of fiction. Questioning the assumptions of traditional narrative forms, the texts blur codes and genres, and invite the reader to play an active role in (re)creating their shapes and meanings.