gender/sexuality/italy is an online annual, peer-reviewed journal that publishes research on gendered identities and the ways they intersect with and produce Italian politics, culture, and society.
by Nicoletta Marini-Maio, Paola Bonifazio, Ellen Nerenberg
The editorial includes the Editors’ introductions to their respective areas: Nicoletta Marini-Maio announces the topic and guest editors of the Themed Section; Paola Bonifazio presents the Invited Perspectives; and Ellen Nerenberg details the contents of the Open Contributions and the section Continuing Discussions, which hosts informed voices on themes developed in previous issues of g/s/i.
This article investigates the stardom of Amedeo Nazzari, both in his pre-war cinematic roles as war hero, and in post-war cinema, where he played the pater familias in a series of melodramas directed by Raffaello Matarazzo and produced by Titanus from 1949 to 1954. While Fascism conceptualized heroism as action and patriotic sacrifice, post-war Italian screen culture redefined the coordinates of heroism through new impersonations of suffering masculinity. Nazzari’s stardom, moving from roles of military virility to melodramatic father figures,
Book Review: Textual Masculinity and the Exchange of Women in Renaissance Venice by Courtney Quaintance
By Chiara Girardi
DOI: https://doi.org/10.15781/3qck-wy23
by Lisa Dolasinski
This article examines the precarious masculinity performed by Nader Sarhan, the male migrant protagonist featured in Claudio Giovannesi’s Alì ha gli occhi azzurri (2012). The theoretical framework draws on scholarship from postcolonial studies, film theory, queer theory, and gender studies. In particular, following recent work on representations of non-national male migrant film protagonists as “queer” and thus inassimilable to the national Italian body, the author contends that Nader’s desire for “white,” hegemonic masculinity (sexual and civic) ultimately results in his own undoing.
Desire and Resistance in Two Poems by Aldo Palazzeschi
by Kristin Szostek Chertoff
Although sexuality has become a common theme in studies of Aldo Palazzeschi’s work, criticism has not yet fully explored how some of his earliest poems interact with the prevailing cultural assumptions and attitudes circulating when they were written and first published. This study approaches two poems—“Habel Nassab” (1909) and “I fiori” (1913)—that portray a poet protagonist’s emotionally disturbing encounter with a man who dominates through femininity,
Lo spazio pubblico si femminilizza, ma scompare il conflitto tra i sessi
by Lea Melandri
“Feminizing the public space” does not only mean highlighting women’s presence therein, but also realizing that “femininity,” as it has been traditionally defined, is strongly relevant today in the same space from which it was excluded for centuries. According to Melandri, in the last twenty years, some ambiguous figures have appeared in Italy: veline,
Dominio femminile, oppressione maschile: un nuovo secondo sesso?
by Elena Dalla Torre
This essay constitutes a short critical reflection on the anti-feminist position of Fabrizio Marchi, founder of the movement “Uomini Beta,” whose “philosophy” of masculism is articulated in response to the consolidated tradition of Italian Feminism, which often ignored the masculine condition. In such philosophy, which we could ironically call of a new second sex, the oppressed male—the victim of a socio-economic model based on success and financial wealth—stands in opposition to the dominant woman,
Matteo Garrone’s Gomorra: A Politically Incorrect Use of Neapolitan Identities and Queer Masculinities?
by Marcello Messina
Taking as a starting point John Champagne’s recent argument about the queer representations of Italian masculinity contained in Garrone’s Gomorra, this paper aims to connect the queer masculinity of the film’s characters with the negative judgement on their lives and actions suggested by the film. In particular, it will be argued that queerness is used alongside the Neapolitan-ness of the characters to portray them as Others,
Subverting Masculinity or Suppressing the Unmanly? Gender Alterity in Palazzeschi and Capuana’s Treatment of the Incorporeal Man
by Martina O’Leary
“Subverting Masculinity or Suppressing the Unmanly?” presents a critical examination and comparison of unreal corporeal depictions of masculinity in Palazzeschi’s Il codice di Perelà and Capuana’s ‘L’invisibile’. These works present strikingly similar protagonists, who themselves affirm the attribute of lightness to be their defining characteristic, and who are made of,
Book Review: Aesthetic Modernism and Masculinity in Fascist Italy by John Champagne
By Alessio Ponzio
DOI: https://doi.org/10.15781/33qa-hj35
