79750 - Gender History

Learning outcomes

Students will deepen gender approaches in the study of modern and contemporary history.

Course contents

The history of men's opposition to women's emancipation is more interesting perhaps than the story of that emancipation itself (Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own, 1929).

 

Masculinities and Politics in modern history

In late modern and contemporary western history, gender languages and representations have had a profound influence on developments in politics and society. In particular, the political code of virility has constituted an important element in the dynamics of legitimisation, consensus, inclusion and exclusion. The course aims to explore the cultural and identity context, looking especially at crucial events and situations in contemporary western history, such as imperialism, industrialisation and urbanisation, the wars, nationalism and military culture, collective violence, the definition of modern political citizenship, and the spread of mass consumerism. Special attention will also be paid to the question of languages. Indeed during the 1900s, the code of virility was an important rhetorical tool in mobilising the masses, maintaining a complex and, in many respects, contradictory relationship with the opposing symbolic ideas of tradition and modernity that has never been fully resolved.

Readings/Bibliography

NB: These are NOT the texts that need to be prepared for the examination, but those that will be used during the course.

Baccolini R. (2005)(a cura di), Le prospettive di genere. Discipline, soglie e confini, Bononia University Press, Bologna

Banti A.M. (2005), L’onore della nazione. Identità sessuali e violenza nel nazionalismo europeo dal XVIII secolo alla Grande Guerra, Einaudi, Torino

Bellassai S. (2006), La legge del desiderio. Il progetto Merlin e l’Italia degli anni cinquanta, Carocci, Roma

Bellassai S. (2007), «La frustrazione del non potere». La condizione maschile nel racconto di un gruppo di ventenni, in dell’Agnese E., Ruspini E. (a cura di), Mascolinità all’italiana. Costruzioni, narrazioni, mutamenti, Utet, Torino

Boni F. (2004), Men's help. Sociologia dei periodici maschili, Meltemi, Roma

Bourdieu, P. (1998), Il dominio maschile, Feltrinelli, Milano (ed. or. 1998)

Connell R.W. (1996), Maschilità. Identità e trasformazioni del maschio occidentale, Feltrinelli, Milano (ed. or. 1995).

De Grazia, V. (1993), Le donne nel regime fascista, Marsilio, Venezia (ed. or. 1992)

Dijkstra B. (1997), Perfide sorelle. La minaccia della sessualità femminile e il culto della mascolinità, Garzanti, Milano (ed. or. 1996)

Horn David G. (1994), Social Bodies. Science, Reproduction, and Italian Modernity, Princeton University Press, Princeton

Lipperini L. (2007), Ancora dalla parte delle bambine, Feltrinelli, Milano

Lupo P. (2006), Eros e potere. Miti sessuali dell’uomo moderno, Marsilio, Venezia

Mosse G.L. (1997), L’immagine dell’uomo. Lo stereotipo maschile nell’epoca moderna, Einaudi, Torino (ed. or. 1996)

Orvieto P. (2002), Misoginie. L’inferiorità della donna nel pensiero moderno, Salerno, Roma

Pateman C. (1997), Il contratto sessuale, Editori Riuniti, Roma (ed. or. 1988)

Sòrgoni B. (1998), Parole e corpi. Antropologia, dicorso giuridico e politiche sessuali interrazziali nella colonia Eritrea (1890-1941), Liguori, Napoli

Stefani G. (2007), Colonia per maschi. Italiani in Africa Orientale: una storia di genere, Ombre Corte, Verona

Theweleit K. (1997), Fantasie virili, Il Saggiatore, Milano (ed. or. 1977)

Wanrooij B.P.F. (1990), Storia del pudore. La questione sessuale in Italia 1860-1940, Marsilio, Venezia

Teaching methods

Traditional lessons; viewing of cinematographic works.

Assessment methods

For attending students, the assessment method will be agreed during the course.

For non-attending students, there will be an oral examination based on the following two texts:

1) A. De Bernardi, R. Balzani, Storia del mondo contemporaneo, Bruno Mondadori, 2003 (chapters 6-14)

2) S. Bellassai, L'invenzione della virilità. Politica e immaginario maschile nell'italia contemporanea, Carocci, 2011

N.B.: In place of Text 1), another text book covering contemporary history from the last decades of the 1800s to the end of the millennium may be chosen.

Non-attending students intending to take the examination are strongly recommended to arrange a meeting with the teacher during office hours to collect information on the examination.

Teaching tools

Projector.

Office hours

See the website of Alessandro Bellassai