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Country cousins: Europeanness, sexuality and locality in contemporary Italian television

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 January 2016

Martin Dines  and
Sergio Rigoletto
Martin Dines*
Affiliation:
Department of Humanities, Kingston University, London, UK
Sergio Rigoletto*
Affiliation:
Department of Modern Languages and European Studies, University of Reading, Reading, UK
*
Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
Current address: Romance Languages/Cinema Studies, University of Oregon, Eugene, USA.
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Abstract

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This article examines the consequences of the concurrence of a recent surge of interest in LGBT lives in the Italian media with the perceived transformation of Spain. Long considered Italy's close – though inferior – cultural cousin, Spain has been seen to be forging its own path with the reforms of the Zapatero administration, gay marriage especially. The article focuses on Il padre delle spose (RAIl, 2006), which generated intense discussion across the political spectrum precisely during the period in which the issue of recognising domestic partnerships between same-sex couples was being contested in Italy. The drama and surrounding media debates are analysed in order to articulate both the anxieties and the sense of opportunity brought about by Spain's ‘sorpasso’ of Italy. The drama is also informative for the way it reverses the standard ‘metropolitan’ trajectory of LGBT narrative. By relocating its lesbian protagonists to rural Puglia, the drama indicates how local traditions might be better able to respond to hetero-patriarchal oppression than imported ideals of ‘coming out’. Further, the drama's emphasis on local forms of solidarity suggests an alternative vision of LGBT existence to the one increasingly dominant across Europe and the West which privileges economically productive subjects.

Keywords

same-sex marriagetelevisionEuropeannessZapateroPugliacoming out
Type
Research Article
Information
Modern Italy , Volume 17 , Issue 4: Special Issue: The politics of sexuality in contemporary Italy , November 2012 , pp. 479 - 491
Copyright
Copyright © Association for the study of Modern Italy 

References

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