Camere separate by Pier Vittorio Tondelli

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. 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. It shows how Tondelli’s interpretation of the role of the writer falls within the definitions given by Calvino and Eco. 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. 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.

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

Camere separate by Pier Vittorio Tondelli