Eccentricity and Sameness: Lesbian Cultural Identity in Italy, 1883 to the present day.

主题：这个项目关注从1883年到现在意大利文本中女性同性恋欲望和身份的文化表现。背景：近几十年来，许多西方国家对同性恋的立法和态度发生了重大变化。对当代和历史上的女同性恋者和男同性恋者文化的研究越来越多，但并不是所有的文化背景都得到了详细的研究；例如，女同性恋者在意大利文化中的地位和代表性很少受到批判性的关注。在意大利，就像在其他地方一样，女同性恋者历来被谴责为变态、边缘化或根本不被承认，因为人们认为女同性恋者在社会上是不可接受的或无法说话的。因此，他们在意大利文学和电影中成为嘲讽的对象。然而，我们也可以识别出一串文字和表现形式，试图让女性之间的同性之爱变得可见并庆祝，特别是自20世纪60年代以来。长期以来，文化表现对女同性恋者和其他性少数群体都具有重要意义，因为它具有表达和表达主流文化传统上忽视或诋毁的明显欲望和身份的潜力。这个项目是一项创新性的研究，将填补在这个问题上学术上的一个持久的空白目的：这个项目的主要目的是研究女性同性爱和欲望的文化表征，以及意大利小说、电影和更当代的文本(如网站)中的女同性恋身份，以了解这种表征的特点和它随着时间的推移而发生变化的方式。该项目涵盖的时间段从19世纪末，也就是早期的性学家开始研究和分类同性行为的那一刻起，一直持续到现在。研究将使用创新的批评和理论框架来识别和分析文化文本。主要的研究问题有三个：1)这些文本中使用了哪些术语来描述同性的爱情和欲望？具体而言，确定了哪些形式的“差异”(感知的或实际的)？2)“女同性恋者”的身份在意大利文化中何时、何地、如何出现和发展，以及“女同性恋者”一词如何在文化文本中使用？3)在意大利的文化表现中，女同性恋者在更广泛的社会文化背景下如何定位于对女性性行为的不断演变的理解；例如，他们如何回应女同性恋者是“不正常的”的说法？有哪些“异同”或“相同”？通过这项研究，该项目将提高学术界和活动家社区以及普通公众对这些问题的认识和讨论。产出：一本英文书；一篇英文期刊文章；会议论文；大学教材；对英国和意大利的普通公众和LGBT社区的演讲，以播客形式提供；意大利网站上的意大利语文章。这将确保这项研究在英语和意大利语环境中广泛传播。进展：研究已经在进行中。我目前正在查阅英国图书馆的相关资源。研究将在意大利的档案馆和图书馆继续进行。我将定期与学术同事以及LGBT社区讨论这项研究，他们的意见将有助于形成该项目。

Subject: This project focuses on the cultural representation of female same-sex and lesbian desire and identity in Italian texts, from 1883 to the present day. Context: Recent decades have seen significant changes in legislation on and attitudes towards homosexuality in many western countries. There is a growing body of research on lesbian and gay cultures, both contemporary and historical, but not all cultural contexts have yet been studied in detail; for example, the status and representation of lesbians in Italian culture has received very little critical attention. In Italy, as elsewhere, lesbians have historically been condemned as perverted, marginalised, or simply unacknowledged due to perceptions of lesbianism as socially unacceptable or unspeakable. As a result, they have featured in Italian literature and film as objects of derision. However, we can also identify a strand of writing and representation that seeks to make visible and to celebrate same-sex love between women, especially since the 1960s. Cultural representation has long held great significance for lesbians, as for other sexual minorities, because of its potential to express and make visible desires and identities that mainstream culture had traditionally ignored or vilified. This project is an innovative study that will fill an enduring void in scholarship on this issueAims: The main aim of this project is to research the cultural representation of female same-sex love and desire, and lesbian identities in Italian novels, films, and more contemporary texts such as websites, in order to understand the characteristics of this representation and the ways in which it has changed over time. The time period covered by the project is from the late nineteenth century, the moment when early sexologists began to study and categorise same-sex practices, to the present day. Research will identify and analyse cultural texts, using an innovative critical and theoretical framework. There are three main research questions:1) what terms are used to describe same-sex love and desire in these texts? In particular, what forms of 'difference' (perceived or actual) are identified?2) when, where and how did 'lesbian' identities emerge and develop in Italian culture, and how has the term 'lesbian' been used in cultural texts?3) within Italian cultural representation, how have lesbian situated themselves in relation to evolving understandings of female sexuality in the broader socio-cultural context; for example, how have they responded to claims that lesbians are 'abnormal'? What kinds of 'differences' or similarities, 'sameness' are evoked?Through this research, the project will raise awareness of and enable discussion on these issues within academic and activist communities, as well as among the general public.Outputs: a book in English; a journal article in English; conference papers; university teaching material; talks to the general public and to LGBT communities both in the UK and Italy, made available as a podcast; articles on Italian websites in Italian. This will ensure that the research is disseminated widely in both Anglophone and Italophone contexts.Progress: The research is already underway. I am currently consulting relevant resources in UK libraries. Research will be continued in archives and libraries in Italy. I will discuss the research regularly with academic colleagues as well as with LGBT communities, whose input will contribute to shaping the project.