Surviving Melancholy and Mourning: a queer politics of damage in Italian literary representations of same-sex parenting
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19 juillet 2022
- handle: 10670/1.gj0j4y
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Mots-clés
same-sex parenting queer politics of damage ItalySujets proches
Legends and stories Novels Stories Electoral politics Political behavior Politics Mass political behavior Practical politics Political thought Government Political theory Civil government Commonwealth, The Science, Political Administration Politics Parent behavior Parental behavior in humans Sorrow Mourning Novels Novellas (Short novels) Fiction--Philosophy Metafiction Stories Family Family structure Families--Social aspects Families--Social conditions Family life Structure, Family Family relationships Relationships, Family Politics and suffrage Government and politics Politics Political historyCiter ce document
Charlotte Ross, « Surviving Melancholy and Mourning: a queer politics of damage in Italian literary representations of same-sex parenting », Phenomenology and Mind, ID : 10670/1.gj0j4y
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While family forms are ever more diverse, there are few critical analyses of the ways in which LGBTQ families have been represented in fiction. This article explores recent Italian novels by Cristiana Alicata, Melania Mazzucco and Chiara Francini that depict lesbian and gay parents and their children. In all these novels at least one gay or lesbian parent dies. Drawing on Judith Butler’s work on mourning and melancholia, I problematize the persistent spectre of grief and loss attached to gay and lesbian parenting. However, reflections by Heather Love also prompt me to explore what Love calls a “politics of damage”, or an attempt to see past the looming threat of inevitable homosexual doom towards the queer, subversive elements of these narratives, which question normative conceptions of the family and open up space to reflect on ‘alternative’ parental models.