B6619 - Introduction to Gender History

Learning outcomes

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

Course contents

The battlefield of gender

This course will address a number of interpretative and methodological issues linked to gender history, and in particular to gender identities and relations in the 19^th and 20^th centuries. The gender dynamics of the past decades will not be considered as a 'subject' in itself, but instead as a changing dimension of freedom and power which is inextricably intertwined with other dimensions of the social and material life of human beings, in an even conflictual relationship of circularity and mutual influences.

Students attending classes will actively participate in various workshops based on a number of texts, working concretely on gender representations as they emerge from historical sources of various kinds (political documents, periodicals, journals, scientific literature, fiction, cinema, song lyrics, etc.), as well as on their connections with the specific socio-cultural context.

Particular attention will be paid to the use of gender representation in Italian political discourse, from the end of the nineteenth century to the present For this reason students are required to have a basic knowledge of modern Italian history.

A specific part of the course will explore the rhetorical and political consequences of the recent concept of the 'gender ideology' on the general Italian public. This is framed within a long history of reactionary or conservative attempts to protect, reconstruct or revive a clear hierarchical order not only between genders but also between social classes, 'races' and, in general, between 'natural' or 'unnatural' principles and acts, in the minds of those (almost always men) who exercise domination or hegemony.

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

Pacilli, M.G. (2020), Uomini duri. Il lato oscuro della mascolinità, Il Mulino, Bologna

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 and commentary 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 three texts:

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

2) S. Salvatici (ed.), Storia delle donne nell'Italia contemporanea, Carocci, Roma 2022

3) L. Schettini, L'ideologia gender è pericolosa, Laterza, Roma-Bari 2023

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

Time machine

Office hours

See the website of Alessandro Bellassai