Nel ventre della metropoli: Intersemiotica,identità italoamericana e sconfitta in “Take the ‘A’ Train” di Don DeLillo

Abstract

This essay offers a critical reading of Don DeLillo's early short story “Take the ‘A’ Train”, structured along a dual interpretative framework. The first part examines the interrelation between American literature and cinema, highlighting how DeLillo's prose assimilates visual techniques and foregrounds an intersemiotic dynamic that overturns traditional hierarchies between image and text. The second part shifts the focus to the Italian American cultural context, analyzing the satirical portrayal of ethnic masculinity. Through the character of Angelo Cavallo, the story dramatizes the failure of ethnic assimilation and the resulting dislocation from both heritage and belonging, positioning the protagonist within a claustrophobic urban limbo where exile is internalized through solitude, memory, and the frustrated pursuit of the American dream.