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Journal of Communication Inquiry
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Commodified Identities: The Myth of Italian Food in the United States

Davide Girardelli

University of Kentucky, Lexington

This study approaches the phenomenon of ethnic food—in particular, Italian food—from a semiotic perspective, keeping in mind the notion of food as communication. The restaurant chain Fazoli’s is used to exemplify some of the communicative strategies employed to promote the association of a company and its products with Italy. These communicative strategies serve the ultimate goal of commodifying the Italian ethnic identity and promoting its symbolic consumption. Through a semiotic analysis, the article identifies a core group of seven themes that constitute the basic structure of the myth of Italian food in the United States. The analysis highlights an unobtrusive use of stereotypes, a mass phenomenon of identity construction, and the depletion of a cultural capital. At the same time, it is recognized that the myth has some positive aspects—namely, the celebration of personal relations (romance and family) and the enjoyment of a more expressive and slow-paced lifestyle.

Key Words: Italian food • Italian restaurants • Italian identity • identity construction • semiotics • postmodernism • Barthes’s theory of myth • Barthes’s theory of signs • consumer culture • commodity-sign • visual communication • stereotypes

Journal of Communication Inquiry, Vol. 28, No. 4, 307-324 (2004)
DOI: 10.1177/0196859904267337
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