Masculinity and Italian Cinema : Sexual Politics, Social Conflict and Male Crisis in the 1970s

Sergio Rigoletto

ISBN 10: 1399569473 / ISBN 13: 9781399569477

Edité par Edinburgh University Press Sep 2026, 2026

A propos de cet article

Neuware - Italian cinema has traditionally used the trope of an inadequate man in crisis to reflect on the country's many social and political upheavals. Masculinity and Italian Cinema examines how this preoccupation with male identity becomes especially acute in the 1970s when a set of more diverse and inclusive images of men emerge in response to the rise of feminism and gay liberation. Through an analysis of the way Italian films explore anxieties about male sexuality and femininity, the book shows how such anxieties also intersect with particular preoccupations about national identity and political engagement. This is an essential study-tool to understand the multiple constructions of masculinity in Italian cinema, helping students and researchers to understand the work of some of Italy's most provocative filmmakers.Key Features\* Re-examines key Italian films, including Bernardo Bertolucci's The Conformist, Ettore Scola's A Special Day, Pier Paolo Pasolini's Theorem and Lina Wertmüller's The Seduction of Mimì, in the light of gender and queer theory.\* Covers the major thematic concerns, genres and stylistic traits of 1970s Italian political cinema\* Analyses the broader cultural context of 1970s Italy, including sections on Italian feminism, Gay liberation and the post-'68 social movements.

N° de réf. du vendeur 9781399569477

Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: Masculinity and Italian Cinema : Sexual Politics, Social Conflict and Male Crisis in the 1970s
• Éditeur: Edinburgh University Press Sep 2026
• Date de parution: 2026
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN à 10 chiffres: 1399569473
• ISBN à 13 chiffres: 9781399569477
• Reliure: Taschenbuch
• État de l'article: Neu
• Dimensions: 234 L x 156 H x 10 P (en millimètres) 234 millimètres de largeur par 156 millimètres de hauteur par 10 millimètres de profondeur
• Poids: 254 grammes

A propos de ce titre

Synopsis

A study of how Italian films re-envisage male identity in response to sexual liberation

How did Italian cinema of the 1970s re-envision masculinity in response to sexual liberation? What role did broader socio-political concerns of the time play in this re-definition? To what extent did this re-envisioning of masculinity intersect with concurrent debates about the function of cinema as a political medium and a mass cultural phenomenon?

Masculinity and Italian Cinema takes the 1970s as an especially instructive period for rethinking the traditional trope of an inadequate male in crisis within Italian cinema. It explores how masculinity functioned in several films of the 1970s as a charged allegory for the many socio-political lacerations of the Italian nation and as a site of conflict and radical interrogation of ideas about gender and sexuality. Sergio Rigoletto re-examines a number of key films, including Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Conformist, Federico Fellini’s City of Women, Ettore Scola’s A Special Day, Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Teorema and Lina Wertmüller’s The Seduction of Mimì, in the light of gender and queer theory and considers the challenges that these films pose to received ideas about gender and sexuality of the time, and to some of the aesthetic and narrative conventions which have traditionally regulated the representation of men in film.

À propos de l'auteur

Sergio Rigoletto is Assistant Professor of Italian and Cinema Studies at the University of Oregon, USA. He has published on film comedy, contemporary queer cinema and Italian television. He is co-editor (with Louis Bayman) of Popular Italian Cinema.