Italian Trans Geographies by Danila Cannamela

Italian Trans Geographies by Danila Cannamela

Provides a remapping of Italian and Italian American culture by retracing trans and gender-variant experiences within Italy and along diasporic routes.

How does the mapping of Italian culture change when it is charted from the perspective of gender-variant people? Italian Trans Geographies tackles this question by retracing trans and gender-variant experiences within the Italian peninsula and along diasporic routes. The volume adopts a cross-disciplinary approach that combines scholarly analyses with grassroots engagement and creative work and centers the voices of Italian and Italian American transpeople through autobiographies, memoirs, interviews, poetry, and visual works. The contributions include works by key Italian trans activists, including Romina Cecconi, Porpora Marcasciano, and Helena Velena, as well as critical interpretations of scholars and artists (many of whom self-identify as trans). Ultimately, these voices show how trans people have contributed to shaping Italian places and cultures while, in turn, being shaped by those places and cultures. Through its attention to geospecific sites, the book highlights blind spots in the hegemonic Anglo-American discourse about gender and overlooked intersections between LGBTQIA+ global discourse and local realities.

"To my knowledge, this collection is absolutely unique—and, for that reason, absolutely vitalOver and over again, I was impressed with how smart it is. Besides being accessible to audiences both inside and outside of the academy, the movement across gender studies, anthropology, history, and political activism is also useful. I learned a lot by reading this anthology, and it really challenged me to think about the relationship between my own Sicilian American identity, gender, and sexuality, and the possibilities they might present for future projects and encounters, both scholarly and personal." — John Champagne, author of Queer Ventennio: Italian Fascism, Homoerotic Art, and the Nonmodern in the Modern

"Modeled after Pier Paolo Pasolini's Comizi d'amore, Italian Trans Geographies challenges the concept of 'trans' from a geographical and gender studies lens. This foundational work casts light upon numerous 'othered' voices from diverse generations, the most noteworthy being Porpora Marcasciano's, to demonstrate how space, place, and time impact trans people's lives and how they, in return, frame the spaces they inhabit. The structure of the opus is unique and forces the texts to speak to each other, while the translations shine. Italian Trans Geographies is a 'must have' for those studying gender within the Italian Diaspora." — Ryan Calabretta-Sajder, University of Arkansas

Danila Cannamela (she/her) is an Assistant Professor of Italian Studies at Colby College. She is the author of The Quiet Avant-Garde: Crepuscular Poetry and the Twilight of Modern Humanism. Marzia Mauriello (she/her) is an Adjunct Professor of Cultural Anthropology at the University of Naples L'orientale in Italy. She is the author of An Anthropology of Gender Variance and Trans Experience in Naples: Beauty in Transit. Summer Minerva (she/they) is an independent researcher, performer, author, filmmaker, activist, and educator. A lover of adventure, Summer tours internationally, sharing her performances, films, and ideas with the world.