Off-campus UMass Amherst users: To download campus access theses, please use the following link to log into our proxy server with your UMass Amherst user name and password.
Non-UMass Amherst users: Please talk to your librarian about requesting this thesis through interlibrary loan.
Theses that have an embargo placed on them will not be available to anyone until the embargo expires.
ORCID
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0774-7820
Document Type
Open Access Thesis
Degree Program
English
Degree Type
Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.)
Year Degree Awarded
2019
Month Degree Awarded
May
Keywords
Russia, Italian-American, song, karaoke, New Jersey, masculinity
DOI
https://doi.org/10.7275/14277256
Abstract
An American singing prodigy escapes to Russia following the death of his bandmate and stays after his last close relative – his mother – dies. It’s the late 1990s and he’s found a new home. After a decade in obscurity he makes a comeback by joining a Russian musical collective, but when they embark on a tour during the events in Crimea in 2014, accusations swirl about his past as a democracy promoter for a U.S.-funded NGO in Vladivostok. Condemned by the media as a spy, he’s eventually denounced by Rokko – the man who rediscovered him, mentored him, and became his best friend – a hybrid like him, someone with a toehold in both Russian and American cultures. He returns to the U.S. where he is also viewed warily, for he responds to criticisms of Russia by encouraging a nuanced understanding of the country at a time when there’s no patience for it. He is left without the one thing he’d always searched for: a home.