italian-studies: Scholarly discussions in any field of Italian studies
Dear Charlotte,
I thought I would open our private discussion from this morning to the
public to offer yet another clarification on the field of research of the
Vested Voices Conference and on some terminology I have used.
The term 'pathological' is intended not as a synonym of 'malato' or '
sexually deviate' , but in its original sense on 'suffering'. There are
indeed many and varied reasons why an author wants to penetrate and
possess the body, or psyche of the opposite sex, or simply to 'pass', and
they do not always derive, and there you're perfectly right, from a
suffered decision or suffering condition in psychological terms. There
are particular reasons/effects created by transvestism, and thus literary
transvestism: the pleasure to trick, as in much of the Renaissance
theatre, political, social transgression, sense of exclusion and desire
to belong, research of one's literary space and style within the
Tradition, fetishism.
I would argue that most of these conditions however derive from a more or
less conscious suffering condition, even when sexuality (hetero or homo,
or indeed bi-sexuality) is involved as one of the main themes.
I am thinking of in particular of a text by a homosexual writer, 'Mimi e
istrioni' in Altri libertini by Pier Vittorio Tondelli, where the
voice's suffering is rather acute (counteracted by their transgressive
and emphasised 'joie de vivre'), and where one of the Splash is indeed a
transvestite with strong political and feminist views, who finally,
returns to what our society calls sexual 'normality' - and there
the suffering becomes stronger rather than being alleviated. By
comparison, I am also thinking of Cesare Pavese's Tra donne sole,
alleged heterosexual writer (and again I do not mean to raise more
discussions on this), where the transvestite narrative reveals just as
suffering a psyche and narrating voice as in Tondelli's, and where
materialistic fetishism is a strong theme, but also sexuality and indeed
homosexuality. The more writers we consider the more the cline along
which we can place them for their reasons/effect grows, but also the more
the confines blur. I hope that the Conference can help us clarify some of
this, or perhaps blur it even more, as more and diverse studies will be
presented.
So I would like to repeat again my apologies, as I did in connection with
Massimiliano Chiamenti's message to the list, for using terminology that
was never meant to be inflammatory, but that I should have explained in
the meaning I wanted to use it in, i.e. its original: 'pathos'.
warm regards and looking forward to continuing the discussion on
Thursday
Rossella
At 13:40 03/04/2005, you wrote:
italian-studies: Scholarly
discussions in any field of Italian studies
I would like to thank Massimiliano Chiamenti for his message
highlighting the problematic nature of the word 'pathological',
especially when used in relation to queer sexualities of any kind. I also
agree that-regrettably-homophobia is still operative in most social
environments. In academic contexts, as elsewhere, we need to pay careful
attention to the use of inflammatory terminology. There is a danger that
interpretative approaches that claim to challenge normativity may
(inadvertently) reinforce the kind of 'pathologizing' attitudes that
queer theorists have sought to identify, deconstruct and
critique.
I am hoping that this conference will prove to be an environment in which
constructive and progressive discussion and exchange of ideas move beyond
a more Freudian attitude.
Charlotte Ross
________________________________
From: Scholarly discussions in any field of Italian studies on behalf of
Rossella Riccobono
Sent: Thu 31/03/2005 09:56
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [I-S] VESTED VOICES Conference
italian-studies: Scholarly discussions in any field of Italian studies
Gentile Massimiliano,
La ringrazio molto per l'annotazione e sono pienamente d'accordo con lei.
Avrei voluto scrivere 'alcuni esempi di letteratura gay e lesbica', e
citarne i casi. In effetti ci sono casi patologici in campo anche in
letteratura non omosessuale.
Mi scuso per la grossolanita', e la ringrazio di avermi dato
l'opportunita' di chiarire questo in pubblico.
Coridali saluti
Rossella
At 14:06 30/03/2005, you wrote:
italian-studies: Scholarly
discussions in any field of Italian studies
Il soggetto della conferenza
mi sembra interessante. Magari eviterei di bollare come patologica
l`identita` gay, lesbica o transgender. Patologica e` semmai la crescente
omofobia con cui quotidianamente conviviamo in ogni ambiente e
livello.
Cordialmente,
Massimiliano Chiamenti
The topic of the conference is
that of Literary Transvestism, a field of research that endeavours to
shed some light on the reasons why some writers decide to use a narrative
voice that belongs to the opposite sex. From the search for their own
individual style and niche within the Literary Tradition as in Cesare
Pavese's La bella estate, to by trying to penetrate the psyche of the
members of the opposite sex as in Alberto Moravia La romana , or by
transvesting their voice in a more pathological wish to 'pass' for a
member of the opposite sex, with its possible fetishistic
reasons/effects, as in lesbian or gay literature.
The Conference explores the
transvestite narratives of a range of Italian writers, from the
Mediaeval, through to Renaissance, up until modern contemporary Italian
writers.
>From: Rossella Riccobono
<[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: Scholarly
discussions in any field of Italian
studies &nb=
sp;
<[log in to unmask]>
>To:
[log in to unmask]
>Subject: [I-S] VESTED
VOICES Conference
>Date: Wed, 23 Mar 2005
19:34:39 +0000
>
><< multipart1
>>
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