Pier Vittorio Tondelli: Letteratura Minore e Scrittura dell'Impegno Sociale

Abstract This thesis illustrates the social engagement in the literary writings of Pier Vittorio Tondelli, an Italian gay author whose works have been described by many Catholic, Materialists, and gay critics as frivolous and disengaged. The dissertation summarizes the mutation of the Italian literary concept of impegno from Neorealism to Postmodernism, through a selection of the texts of Elio Vittorini, Italo Calvino, Franco Fortini, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Leonardo Sciascia, and Umberto Eco. It shows how Tondelli’s interpretation of the role of the writer falls within the definitions given by Calvino and Eco. Moreover, the thesis demonstrates that Altri libertini and Pao Pao satisfy the characteristics of littérature mineure established by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, though Tondelli’s oeuvre is socially engaged instead of being politically engaged because of his lack of a political ideology. The dissertation highlights the core of Tondelli’s social commitment in his passionate defense of the outcasts in: Altri libertini where drug addicts, homosexuals, transsexuals, and bums are the protagonists; Pao Pao where a group of gay soldiers is described in its grotesque and camp attempt to “homosexualize” their barrack; Rimini where the Riviera Adriatica is portrayed as a place where everyone passes by and no one belongs; Camere separate through the love story of a gay couple in which one partner has to survive his lover’s death, due to an illness that is demonstrated in this thesis to be AIDS, while fighting against the homophobia of their families, institutions, society, and religion. Most of Tondelli’s socially excluded characters are introduced to the reader through an internal homodiegetic point of view. Another important component of Tondelli’s impegno is his open defense of both pop-culture and counter-cultures: gay, hippies, rockers, experimental theatre, street artists and alternative radio, which are central in all his writings.

Keywords: Pier Vittorio Tondelli
Italian Literature
Gay Literature
20th Century Italian Literature
Minor Literature
Engagement
Social Engagement
Camp
Gay Studies
Queer Studies
Queer Theory
Literary Criticism
Impegno
Elio Vittorini
Impegno e letteratura
Impegno e intellettuali
Pier Paolo Pasolini
Italo Calvino
Franco Fortini
Leonardo Sciascia
Umberto Eco
Alberto Arbasino
Letteratura del XX secolo
Letteratura italiana contemporanea
Impegno sociale
Letteratura minore
Critica letteraria
Letteratura del '900
Antonio Gramsci
Homophobia
Gender Studies
Omofobia
AIDS Literature
HIV Literature
Commitment
Homoerotic Literature
Separate Rooms
Camere separate
Other Libertines
Altri libertini
Dinnery Party
Rimini
Pao Pao
Il diario del soldato Acci
Correggio
Reggio Emilia
Narratori delle pianure
Emilia Romagna
Italia
Italy
Jesuit School
Gesuiti
Catholicism
Cattolicesimo
Beat Literature
Pop Literature
Noir
Postmodernismo
Postmoderno
Postmodern
Postmodernism
Federico Fellini
Eugenio Bolongaro
Gary Cestaro
Antonio Spadaro
Fulvio Panzeri
Religione
Religion
Pop Culture
Mass Culture
1977
DAMS
Bologna
Movimento del '77
Michel Foucault
Esther Newton
Advisor: Capozzi, Rocco