2.Tutto cambia affinché tutto cambi: Meridione, politica e nazione ne L’arte della gioia
by Carla Panico
This paper examines Goliarda Sapienza’s L’arte della gioia as a decolonial intervention in the “colonial representations” of Southern Italy, which often frame the Mezzogiorno as politically immobile and fatally resistant to self-organization. Defined as the AntiGattopardo, the novel challenges these stereotypes by reimagining Southern identity through the body, desire, and dissent. Its protagonist, Modesta, embodies a refusal of normative gender roles tied to Italian nationalism and engages in forms of militancy that unsettle both the national narrative and the boundaries of citizenship.