Search results

"Marcasciano's memoir sheds light on her experience in left-wing movements in Italy during the 1970s and early 1980s, at the outset of which 'coming out' was not yet a phenomenon in Italy and many preferred or were forced to repress their non-normative identities for fear of social repercussions. She details her trajectory toward an increased awareness of her sexuality. During her time in the cosmopolitan cities of Naples, Rome, and Bologna, she engages in consciousness raising and eventually succeeds in uniting the personal and the political, a practice that was common to women and people of queer identities. The book ends when AIDS hits Italy in the early 1980s. Marcasciano's memoir is one of few Italian texts to meticulously map out the main movements and political struggles of the 1970s and '80s from a queer perspective. Furthermore, AntoloGaia is the first work of Italian literature to use gender-inclusive language, a practice that is only starting to be taken seriously in Italy at the present time"--

In this stirring memoir by a member of the first generation of LGBTQ+ activists in Italy, Porpora Marcasciano tells her story and shares the struggles and accomplishments of her fellow activists who achieved so much in the 1970s yet suffered devastating losses during the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s. AntoloGaia offers an insider's look at the beginnings of the gay liberation movement in Italy and reveals how it was intimately intertwined with other forms of left-wing activism. At the same time, it powerfully conveys the queer joy of a young person from a small village first encountering the vibrant sexual minority communities of Naples, Bologna, and Rome. As Marcasciano starts to embrace her trans identity, she meets the famous anthropologist Pino Simonelli, who introduces her to Naples's unique femminielli subculture and gives her the name Porporino, which she later shortens to Porpora. In keeping with this story of gender, sexual, and political discovery, AntoloGaia is the first piece of Italian life-writing to use gender-neutral and mixed-gender language