italian-studies: Scholarly discussions in any field of Italian studies
Dear all,
I am writing to this list with a few doubts that I've been mulling over since attending the excellent AAIS conference in Zurich last weekend. I participated in some of the Queer Studies caucus sessions, and attended several of the Women's Studies caucus sessions, since these areas are where my primary interests lie. I listened to some feminist scholars who were (rightly I think) criticising the ways in which women in positions of authority in Italy are still often linguistically erased: the phenomenon of women politicians who are either referred to by others, or themselves choose to be referred to as 'il ministro', for example. However I was surprised and a little shocked to hear feminists take a negative view of the asterisk, which has come to be used in Italian, by queer communities in particular, as a way of moving beyond gender binaries in language. Clearly the asterisk is not an ideal solution, since it cannot (as far as I know) be pronounced; however, it is a way of marking opposition to gendered linguistic norms that begins to address the challenges of developing a more flexible and inclusive language. Opposition to the asterisk was challenged by questions from the floor in the sessions that I attended. It seems to me that a feminist position that discards the asterisk risks establishing a normative, essentialist approach that divides feminist and queer scholars/individuals. In my view, there are important conversations to be had about approaches to linguistic erasure, but also about the relationships between feminist and queer scholars (overlapping communities, surely), and feminist and queer activists in Italy.
I'd be interested to hear colleagues' thoughts on these questions.
Charlotte Ross
Dr Charlotte Ross
Department of Modern Languages
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham B15 2TT
Tel: +44 (0)121 4147505
Blog: http://charlotterossresearch.wordpress.com/
Sexuality and Gender Studies at Birmingham: http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/research/activity/gender/index.aspx
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