scholarly journals Goliarda Sapienza’s Eccentric Interruptions: Multiple selves, gender ambiguities and disrupted desires

altrelettere ◽  
2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte Ross
Keyword(s):  
Gender Identity ◽  
Sexual Desire ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Multiple Selves ◽  
Productive Force ◽  
Critical Attention ◽  
Dominant Discourses ◽  
First Time ◽  
Alternative Discourses

This article considers the work of Goliarda Sapienza (1924-1996), which is currently undergoing a renaissance: early texts are being republished, posthumous works have appeared in print, and she is beginning to attract sustained critical attention for the first time. With reference to several texts, most notably "Lettera aperta", "Io Jean Gabin", "Il filo di mezzogiorno", "L’arte della gioia" and "Le certezze del dubbio", I show how her work challenges a series of received norms and concepts: in addition to deconstructing any notion of the coherent, unified subject, she also disrupts traditional (hetero)normative conceptions of gender identity, sexed body and sexual desire. I analyse her work and thought as a series of interrupted autobiographical chapters, and argue that she can be read as an «eccentric subject», as defined by Teresa de Lauretis: she is «dis-located» from normative society, and challenges and interrupts dominant discourses, but also calls into question alternative discourses, for example feminism. As a result, her work may be challenging to read, but it is richly provocative. Finally, I consider how Sapienza herself experiences modalities of «interruption»; she strives to rewrite herself following trauma, and struggles with same-sex desire. Her eccentricity is experienced as both a driving, productive force of which she is proud, and a source of personal contestation. I conclude that while her relationship with some strands of feminism is rather combative, her unorthodox self-questioning, and her questioning of all institutions, make her work and thought immensely important as a form of feminist self-(re-)definition that has hitherto received little attention.

Can the “internal couple” be our faithful lifelong partner?

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 129-142
Author(s):  
Molly Ludlam
Keyword(s):  
Gender Identity ◽  
Intimate Relationships ◽  
Family Dynamics ◽  
Online Dating ◽  
Societal Change ◽  
Couple Relationships ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Internal Object ◽  
Lifelong Partner ◽  
And Gender

For over fifty years the concept of the “internal couple”, as a composite internal object co-constructed in intimate relationships, has been fundamental to a psycho-analytic understanding of couple relationships and their contribution to family dynamics. Considerable societal change, however, necessitates review of how effectively and ethically the concept meets practitioners’ and couples’ current needs. Does the concept of an internal couple help psychotherapists to describe and consider all contemporary adult couples, whether same-sex or heterosexual, monogamous, or polyamorous? How does it accommodate online dating, relating via avatars, and use of pornography? Is it sufficiently inclusive of those experimenting in terms of sexual and gender identity, or in partnerships that challenge family arrangement norms? Can it usefully support thinking about families in which parents choose to parent alone, or are absent at their children’s conception thanks to surrogacy, adoption, and IVF? These and other questions prompt re-examination of this central concept’s nature and value.

Homosexuality in K. Sello Duiker’s The Quiet Violence of Dreams: Demythologising the Imaginings and Universalising the Reality

Imbizo ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Adetunji Kazeem Adebiyi-Adelabu
Keyword(s):  
Coming Out ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Black African ◽  
Sex Preference ◽  
National Allegory ◽  
Critical Attention ◽  
Sex Orientation ◽  
The Right

Sello Duiker’s The Quiet Violence of Dreams offers an extensive treatment of homosexuality, a preoccupation which, until recently, is rare in black African fiction. On this account, as well as its depth and openness, the work has attracted some critical attention. It has been read from a masculinity perspective, as a coming-out novel, as a national allegory, as a work that challenges the notion of fixed sexuality, as a work that normalises same-sex sexuality, and so forth. Unlike these studies, this article examines the representation and disquisition around same-sex preference in the novel, with a view to demonstrating how some myths about homosexuality are exploded in the groundbreaking work, and showing that the narrative could also be apprehended as intellectual advocacy for the right to same-sex orientation.

scholarly journals Writing about listening: alternative discourses in rock journalism

Popular Music ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
CHRIS ATTON
Keyword(s):  
Field Theory ◽  
Social Practices ◽  
Alternative Music ◽  
Dominant Discourses ◽  
Alternative Discourses

Abstract‘Alternative’ publications challenge the conventional discourses of rock journalism. In particular, the dominant discourses of authenticity, masculinity and mythology might be countered by publications that emphasise historical and (sub)cultural framing, and that present radicalised ‘spaces of listening’. Using Bourdieu’s field theory to identify autonomous and semi-autonomous sites for rock criticism, the paper compares how a fanzine (the Sound Projector) and what Frith has termed an ideological magazine (the Wire) construct their reviews. The findings suggest that, whilst there is no evidence for an absolute break with the dominant conventions of reviewing, there is a remarkable polyglottism in alternative music reviewing. The paper emphasises differing cultural and social practices in the multiple ways the publications write about music, and argues for the value of such polyglottism.

State Obligations in Relation to Gender Identity and Rights of Same-Sex Couples

2021 ◽  
Vol 194 ◽  
pp. 277-462
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Gender Identity ◽  
Family Life ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Name Change ◽  
Same Sex Couples ◽  
State Obligations ◽  
Administrative Procedures ◽  
And Gender

277Human rights — Gender identity — Rights of same-sex couples — State obligations concerning recognition of gender identity and rights of same-sex couples — American Convention on Human Rights, 1969 — Right to equality and non-discrimination of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) persons — Article 1(1) of American Convention on Human Rights, 1969 — Whether sexual orientation and gender identity protected categories under Article 1(1) — Right to gender identity — Right to a name — Whether States under obligation to facilitate name change based on gender identity — Whether failure to establish administrative procedures for name change violating American Convention on Human Rights, 1969 — Whether name change procedure under Article 54 of Civil Code of Costa Rica complying with American Convention on Human Rights, 1969 — Right to equality and non-discrimination — Right to protection of private and family life — Right to family — Whether States obliged to recognize patrimonial rights arising from a same-sex relationship — Whether States required to establish legal institution to regulate same-sex relationshipsInternational tribunals — Jurisdiction — Inter-American Court of Human Rights — Advisory jurisdiction — Whether advisory jurisdiction restricted by related petitions before Inter-American Commission on Human Rights — Admissibility — Whether request meeting formal and substantive requirements — Whether Court having jurisdiction

Inclusivity the Brazilian Way: The Road to Same-sex Marriage in the Episcopal Anglican Church of Brazil

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-28
Author(s):  
Luiz Carlos Teixeira Coelho Filho
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Orientation ◽  
Gender Identity ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Anglican Church ◽  
Same Sex Marriage ◽  
The Road ◽  
Brazilian Society ◽  
Local Sources ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
English Speaking World

AbstractIn June 2018, the Igreja Episcopal Anglicana do Brasil’s (IEAB) General Synod voted, by an overwhelming majority, to amend its canons by redefining marriage as a ‘lifelong union between two people, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity’.2 In this essay, I intend to describe the process that led to such decision both as the result of major changes that happened in Brazilian society and as a response to IEAB’s inner process of discernment and theology-making in parallel with other Anglican provinces. Rather than merely copying theological developments and discussions produced in the English-speaking world, IEAB creatively engaged foreign and local sources (Anglican and non-Anglican), thus producing a contextually based theology that led to its embracing of same-gender couples as full members, worthy of all sacraments and rites.

Arthur C. Clarke

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary Westfahl
Keyword(s):  
Solar System ◽  
Science Fiction ◽  
First Century ◽  
Space Travel ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Critical Attention ◽  
The Future ◽  
Fiction Writers ◽  
Distance Communication ◽  
First Time

Despite extensive critical attention, Arthur C. Clarke’s distinctive science fiction has never been fully or properly understood. This study examines some of his lighthearted shorter works for the first time and explores how Clarke’s views regularly diverge from those of other science fiction writers. Clarke thought new inventions would likely bring more problems than benefits and suspected that human space travel would never extend beyond the solar system. He accepted that humanity would probably become extinct in the future or be transformed by evolution into unimaginable new forms. He anticipated that aliens would be genuinely alien in both their physiology and psychology. He perceived a deep bond between humanity and the oceans, perhaps stronger than any developing bond between humanity and space. Despite his lifelong atheism, he frequently pondered why humans developed religions, how they might abandon them, and why religions might endure in defiance of expectations. Finally, Clarke’s characters, often criticized as bland, actually are merely reticent, and the isolated lifestyles they adopt--remaining distant or alienated from their families and relying upon connections to broader communities and long-distance communication to ameliorate their solitude--not only reflect Clarke’s own personality, as a closeted homosexual and victim of a disability, but they also constitute his most important prediction, since increasing numbers of twenty-first-century citizens are now living in this manner.

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