Queer Italian Studies: Critical Reflections from the Field (original) (raw)
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Italian Studies, 2019
This article investigates the multifaceted theoretical orientations and political concerns of, and the urgent need for, queer Italian studies. Critically reflecting on the current social, cultural, political, and economic positions of LGBTQIA+ identified individuals and other minoritised people in Italy, the article maps out diverse but convergent ways of understanding the urgent public and institutional need for interdisciplinary approaches to embodied and theoretical Italian queerness, and the potential impact of this research, activism, and pedagogy. After an exploration into the traces that link queer Italian studies to historical research and feminist history and an elaboration of what a queer Italian pedagogy looks like, this article urges us to look across marginalised publics, so that by using these variegated geopolitical and theoretical positions, languages and praxes, those both inside and outside academia can collectively inform and further the discipline of queer Italian studies.
After Difference. Queer Activism in Italy and Anthropological Theory by Paolo Heywood is a twofold book. On the one hand, it presents ethnographic research on a variety of issuesthe meaning of 'left-wing', the notion of 'double morality', and queer/LGBT activismwith 'difference' as their overarching theme and Bologna as their location. On the other hand, it engages with the nature of anthropological theory, and specifically with 'the relationship between ethnographic objects and analytical categories' (p. 6), a relationship that is characterized by irreducible 'difference'. The structure of the book reflects this twofold focus, as it is clearly divided in ethnographic and theoretical sections, which do not inform each other and are instead brought together by the common theme of difference. By keeping the two elements separate, Heywood explicitly makes the point that ethnography and anthropological theory are different from one another, and that such a difference should not be overcome or reduced but rather kept alive and constantly produced. The notion of bringing together through a relation of difference is also, Heywood argues, what creates an analogy between queer activism and anthropology. They both value and produce differencethe difference between activists, between groups, and between these and heteronormative society, on the one hand; the difference between ethnography and anthropological concepts, on the other.
Sudeep Dasgupta and Mireille Rosello (eds.), What's Queer about Europe. New York, Fordham University Press, pp. 81-90., 2014
In Italy, Ettore Scola's fi lm A Special Day (Italy, 1977) left an indelible mark and continues to be acknowledged as a masterpiece that transcends national cultures and cinematographic traditions. Set at the time of Italian fascism during the 1930s, the fi lm takes radical positions on love and politics. Emerging after neorealism, Italian comedy, and the political cinema of the 1970s, it develops a clear narrative through a polished, yet naturalistic, style that combines different Italian traditions.
"A View on Queer and Feminism in Italy: Conflicts and Alliances". Gender/sexuality/Italy 6 (2019)
Gender/sexuality/Italy 6, 2019
This article explores some aspects of the relationship between feminism and queer in Italy today. There are significant areas where these two discursive and political paradigms have established and continue to establish productive, mutually reinforcing conversations and alliances. In other contexts, however, a sheer tension has emerged between the two, rooted in diverging views of the pivotal notion of "sexual difference." The article sets out to investigate and compare queer and feminist approaches to difference, reflecting critically on a number of scholarly, newspaper and blog articles that inform the current queer-feminist debate in Italy. On the one hand, it asks whether queer theory and activism have been misrepresented in these contexts, and how queer studies have responded to the critiques that have been addressed to queer theory and political practice. On the other hand, it points out how queer discourses have also partly misconstrued the positions and motivations of "sexual difference" feminism, at times relying on a form of linear temporality whereby queer fluidity would replace an "outdated" feminism. The article then looks at instances where a fruitful relationship between queer and feminism is established in academia and activism, especially in the recent development of transfeminism and the national network of Non una di meno.
Italian Masculinity as Queer: an Immoderate Proposal
gender/sexuality/Italy, 2014
This essay investigates a particularly polemical claim: that, throughout much of Western history, Italian masculinity and male sexuality have been represented in the literary and fine arts as "queer" in the specific sense of deconstructing the binaries masculine/feminine and homosexual/heterosexual.
Queer, Frocia, Femminiellə, Ricchione et al. – Localizing “Queer” in the Italian Context
Gender Sexuality Italy, 2019
This paper aims at examining the reception,(g)localization, and also (re)creation of different forms of “queer” in the Italian context. First, I conduct a semasiological analysis of the diachronic semantic and connotative development of the English-turned-global “queer” in order to provide a detailed insight into its palimpsestic meaning. The offensive qualities of the slur, I argue, provide the aggressive power required for self-definition in queer activism. In a next step, I examine the entry of “queer” into the Italian lexicon from a queer lexicographical and lexicological perspective. Lastly, adopting an onomasiological approach, selected emerging local Italian alternatives to the adopted and adapted English “queers” are presented, specifically frocioand frocia, femminiellə, and ricchione. My analysis focuses on the Italian linguistic and cultural context not as a passive recipient but brings to light its active and productive role in creating (g)localized “queers” by reappropriating and resignifying pre-existing local terms. It shows the interplay between the English and Italian “queers” and their alternatives, outlining their locatedness on a global to local scale, while at the same time unraveling their interconnectedness and their interdependencies.
Exploring the Complex Geographies of Italian Queer Activism
WHEN I WAS invited to write about queer activism in Italy, my reaction was totally enthusiastic, as it would be a chance to combine my PhD research issues (the geographies of social movements) with my interest and engagement in queer politics. Nevertheless, when assembling ideas and developing the main argument, I struggled to identify a unitary social movement I could refer to as queer activism in Italy. Looking back on the literature on the diffusion of queer theory and practice in Italy (e.g. Pustianaz 2010; 2011; Scarmoncin 2012), I realized the source of my concerns: the reception and translation of queer (intended as a theory, an adjective, a noun, a verb, and/or a political practice) among Italian activists beyond the academic sphere. Who is currently using the adjective/ verb queer to identify their political practice of sexual dissidence in the Italian context? Do the people I think of, and refer to, as queer activists really define themselves as queer subjects? What are the relations between the use of queer and that of frocia (literally fag in the feminine form) among militants?
Black, Queer, Jewish Italy (Seminar Syllabus, Princeton University, Fall 2017)
This seminar approaches the two most studied phases of Italian history, the Renaissance and the Twentieth century, by placing otherness at the center of the picture rather than at its margins. The main aim is to challenge traditional accounts of Italian culture, and to look at pivotal events and phenomena (the rise of Humanism, the rise of fascism, courtly culture, the two World Wars, Sixteenth century art, the avant-garde) from the point of view of non-white, non-christian, non-heterosexual witnesses , authors, and fictional characters. In class, we will adopt a trans-historical, intersec-tional, and interdisciplinary perspective: themes and issues will be analyzed at the crossing of the two historical phases and of the three topics in exam, and the material will include historical and theoretical analyses, narrative texts of different genres, poems , films, and works of visual art.
Critical Approaches to Gender and Sexuality in Italian Culture and Society
In exploring the development of critical debates on gender and sexuality in contemporary Italian culture, this article focuses on three issues that, it is argued, have shaped this evolution, at times limiting its scope: the interdisciplinary character of these fields; the varying levels of attention devoted to different modalities of gender and sexuality, which have seen more attention devoted to women/femininity than to men/masculinities; evolving theoretical discourses on gender and sexuality and arising tensions, particularly between Anglophone poststructuralist conceptions of gender and Italian sexual difference thought. I suggest that while perceived or actual failures to engage with Anglophone critical discourses provoke frustration, some recent scholarship in Italian offers productive critical innovation, interweaving Anglophone theories with Italian thought. This and other recent work goes some way towards addressing persistent gaps in critical analyses of sexuality and gender in an Italian context.