Italian Trans Geographies

Danila Cannamela (she/her) is an Assistant Professor of Italian Studies at Colby College. She is the author of The Quiet Avant-Garde: Crepuscular Poetry and the Twilight of Modern Humanism. Marzia Mauriello (she/her) is an Adjunct Professor of Cultural Anthropology at the University of Naples L'orientale in Italy. She is the author of An Anthropology of Gender Variance and Trans Experience in Naples: Beauty in Transit. Summer Minerva (she/they) is an independent researcher, performer, author, filmmaker, activist, and educator. A lover of adventure, Summer tours internationally, sharing her performances, films, and ideas with the world.

"To my knowledge, this collection is absolutely unique—and, for that reason, absolutely vital. Over and over again, I was impressed with how smart it is. Besides being accessible to audiences both inside and outside of the academy, the movement across gender studies, anthropology, history, and political activism is also useful. I learned a lot by reading this anthology, and it really challenged me to think about the relationship between my own Sicilian American identity, gender, and sexuality, and the possibilities they might present for future projects and encounters, both scholarly and personal." — John Champagne, author of Queer Ventennio: Italian Fascism, Homoerotic Art, and the Nonmodern in the Modern"Modeled after Pier Paolo Pasolini's Comizi d'amore, Italian Trans Geographies challenges the concept of 'trans' from a geographical and gender studies lens. This foundational work casts light upon numerous 'othered' voices from diverse generations, the most noteworthy being Porpora Marcasciano's, to demonstrate how space, place, and time impact trans people's lives and how they, in return, frame the spaces they inhabit. The structure of the opus is unique and forces the texts to speak to each other, while the translations shine. Italian Trans Geographies is a 'must have' for those studying gender within the Italian Diaspora." — Ryan Calabretta-Sajder, University of Arkansas

• List of IllustrationsAcknowledgmentsTimeline of Key EventsIntroductionItalian Trans Geographies: Retracing Trans/Cultural Narratives of People and PlacesDanila CannamelaSOUTHPart 1. Memories of Transitions1. From AntoloGaia: Vivere sognando e non sognando di vivere; I miei anni settanta (AntholoGay: Living Dreaming and Not Dreaming of Living; My Seventies)Porpora Marcasciano2. From L'aurora delle trans cattive: Storie, sguardi e vissuti della mia generazione transgender (The Dawn of the Bad Trans Women: Stories, Fragments, and Lives of My Transgender Generation)Porpora Marcasciano3. From Tra le rose e le viole: La storia e le storie di transessuali e travestiti (Among Roses and Violets: The Story and the Stories of Transsexuals and Transvestites)Porpora Marcasciano4. From Dolore minimo (Minimum Pain) and Dove non siamo stati (Where We Haven't Been)Giovanna Cristina VivinettoPart 2. The Femminielli: A Gender-Variant Community between Past and Present5. "Et io ne viddi uno in Napoli." I femminielli: Ricognizione storica e mitografica; Spunti per una riflessione sull'identità di genere ("And I saw one of them in Naples." Femminielli: Historical and Mythographic Recognition; Starting Points for a Reflection on Gender Identity) Eugenio Zito, Paolo Valerio, and Nicola Sisci6. From Altri transiti: Corpi, pratiche, rappresentazioni di femminielli e transessuali (Other Transitions: Bodies, Practices, Representations of Femminielli and Transsexuals)Maria Carolina Vesce7. Two Real-Life Perspectives on the Femminielli: A Conversation withLoredana Rossi and Ciro Cascina Marzia MaurielloCENTERPart 3. A Felliniesque Dolce Vita8. From L'aurora delle trans cattivePorpora Marcasciano9. From Io, la "Romanina": Perché sono diventato donna (I, "Romanina": Why I Became a Woman)Romina CecconiPart 4. Narrating Trans History as a Meaningful Experience10. From Elementi di critica trans (Elements of Trans Critique)Edited by Laurella Arietti, Christian Ballarin, Giorgio Cuccio, and Porpora Marcasciano11. Non siamo nat@ ieri (We Weren't Born Yesterday) Egon BotteghiNORTHPart 5. Stories of Trans Identity and Activism12. From AntoloGaiaPorpora Marcasciano13. From Favolose narranti: Storie di transessuali (Fabulous Narrators: Stories of Transsexuals)Porpora Marcasciano14. From Camminavo rasente i muri: Autobiografia tascabile di un transessuale (I Was Walking Along the Walls: Pocket Autobiography of a Transsexual Man)Massimo D'Aquino15. Three Stories of Activism in Italy: Conversations with Christian Ballarin, Giorgio Cuccio, and Mazen MasoudMarzia MaurielloPart 6. Testifying to Voices and Images of Transness16. Perverse Polymorphs Proto T* at the Dawn of 1980s Italian RiflussoHelena Velena17. A Trans Revolution and Its Contradictions: An Interview with Simone CangelosiDanila Cannamela18. Lina Pallotta's Portrait of Porpora: "Snapshots of a Moment" and Geographies of FriendshipDanila Cannamela and Stella GonzalezTRANSITIONS ACROSS THE OCEANPart 7. Italian Migration and Queer Roots19. Michela Griffo: "Io sono sangue"; I Am Blood, or the Stonewall Story from the Perspective of an Italian American LesbianSummer Minerva20. What Does It Mean for the Italian American Community to be Trans? Frances Rose Subbiondo, Erin Ferrentino, Liz Mariani, Summer Minerva, and Liana CusmanoPart 8. New Italian American Migrations: Back to Italy21. Summer Within: A Journey of Migration and ReconnectionDanila Cannamela22. A Queer 'Talian PilgrimageSummer MinervaConclusion: Paths for Future Exploration: Language, Situatedness, and Glocal PathsDanila Cannamela and Marzia MaurielloList of ContributorsIndex