Johnny L. Bertolio
THE QUEER MUSE
DIVERSITY IN ITALIAN LITERATURE FROM DANTE TO IGIABA SCEGO
ACTIVE LEARNING
PRESENTATION SKILLS
WRITING ACTIVITIES
PAST & PRESENT
AUMENTO
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Johnny L. Bertolio
THE QUEER MUSE
DIVERSITY IN ITALIAN LITERATURE FROM DANTE TO IGIABA SCEGO
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Introduction
In its original etymology, the term queer meant “oblique, crooked, eccentric,” making its later use as a derogatory term an apt antonym for “straight.” In academic research – at the intersection of philosophy, sociology, and literature – Queer Studies aim to deconstruct traditional gender and sexual paradigms, as well as cultural rather than “natural” roles in society. This approach also opens the door to examining historical boundaries and impositions in various literary scenarios, such as those concerning physical and mental health, racial discrimination, and family models.
From this perspective, Italian literature offers a wealth of opportunities, as its multifaceted array of texts includes contributions from men, women, and non-conforming authors. However, at the end of the nineteenth century, the canon of established national masterpieces served to consolidate the culture of the newly unified Kingdom of Italy in a single, narrow direction. During that period, school curricula became the laboratory for forging a cohesive Italian identity across the peninsula and later in its colonies. According to a sort of algorithm, the ideal author was required to be politically engaged, Catholic yet anticlerical (as the Kingdom of Italy was founded in opposition to the temporal power of the Papacy), fluent in the Tuscan vernacular, chosen as the foundation of the Italian language, and a creator of an intense style aligned with the work’s content. Even national luminaries who wrote gloomy poetry or avoided political engagement risked exclusion from the canon.
This monochromatic panorama has since been revitalized by theories and approaches that highlight how, within the same historical and editorial contexts as the “great” authors, there was space for alternative identities and narratives. Thanks to a less authoritarian and politically driven approach, today’s students of Italian literature around the world have access to updated editions of canonical and non-canonical works. Consequently, the pantheon of the nine Muses welcomes a new member – the Queer Muse – who celebrates diverse representations, both past and present. The Queer Muse enters the chorus of Muses with the same tender intensity as the figures on the cover of this book, who embrace and kiss, inviting spectators to contemplate their example. This image, a 1626 allegory of Painting and Poetry by Florentine artist Francesco Furini, is accompanied by the Latin motto: “Greater by the light shared.”
The sections and chapters of The Queer Muse trace a chronological journey through authors, cities, and themes, from medieval Dante to contemporary Igiaba Scego, emphasizing variety over uniformity. This exploration features celebrated and lesser-known figures in Italian literature and highlights their legacy in present culture. The book’s graphic design reflects the influence of social networks on modern learning, presenting biographies, quotations, texts, and didactic activities within an engaging framework that includes elements such as follower and blocked contact lists, memes and trolls, and images with captions. Exercises encourage participation and provide resources for pre- and post-reading activities, both in print and online. A dedicated section also draws comparisons between notable English and Italian words.
Leafing through the pages of The Queer Muse will leave readers with the impression that Italian literature is not a static, moldy monolith but rather a polycentric prism. Its authors and texts challenge conventional perceptions of Italian identity, illustrating how diverse representations – often seen as a modern phenomenon – actually have deep roots in literary imagination stretching back decades, if not centuries.
And now, let the Queer Muse take center stage! We invite you to step into their radiant spectacle.
The Author
Italy Today: Its
20 Regions and the Origins of Our 40 Authors
Sibilla Aleramo, Amalia Guglielminetti, Primo Levi
Aosta Valley
Piedmont
Alessandro Manzoni
Tr entinoSouth Tyrol
Veneto
R
Ligurian Sea
Italo Calvino, Eugenio Montale
Dante Alighieri, Petrarch, Giovanni Boccaccio, Caterina, Niccolò Machiavelli, Michelangelo Buonarroti, Carlo Collodi
F riuliVenezia Giulia
Gaspara Stampa, Isabella Andreini, Moderata Fonte, Carlo Goldoni Umberto Saba
Ludovico Ariosto, Giuseppe Verdi, Pier Paolo Pasolini
Grazia Deledda
Vittoria Colonna, Eleonora de Fonseca Pimentel, Anna Maria Ortese, Elsa Morante, Igiaba Scego
Torquato Tasso, Giovan Battista Marino, Margherita Sarrocchi, Matilde Serao, Roberto Saviano, Elena Ferrante
Petronilla Paolini, Gabriele d’Annunzio
Giovanni Verga, Luigi Pirandello, Natalia Ginzburg, Goliarda Sapienza
A Mediterranean Canon
Historical Events in Italy
1309-77 Papal court from Rome to Avignon (France)
1348 Pandemics of plague
1469-92 Lorenzo the Magnificent lord of Florence
1494-1512 Republican government in Florence
1512-27 Medici back in power
Palazzo Vecchio (“Old Palace”) in Piazza della Signoria, the headquarters of the political power with the tower by Arnolfo di Cambio
River Arno
@Florence
Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore (“Our Lady of the Flower,” connected with the name of Florence), with the bell tower by Giotto and the dome by Filippo Brunelleschi
Key Words
#Middle Ages The long era from the fall of the Western Roman Empire (476 AD) to the fifteenth century (Quattrocento). It refers to the in-between period after Antiquity and before the Early Modern age, but gathers historical phenomena that are very different, complex and not at all “obscure” – as anything “medieval” is perceived.
#Humanism Cultural approach aiming to promote the humanities, based on the study of ancient Greek and Latin texts. Humanists focused on the dignity and centrality of the human being. Their model of “man” was, however, more exclusive than inclusive in terms of gender, ethnicity, and physicality.
In the last centuries of the Middle Ages, Florence experienced both economic growth and political instability. Whilst the city was beset by conflicts among parties, guilds, and power groups, and by wars with other towns, Florence was the birthplace of the Italian language through the “three crowns”: Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio, who together with Catherine of Siena and Machiavelli, constitute the first canon of Italian literature at the center of a web of contacts spanning Christian and Islamic Europe and the entire Mediterranean. In the Quattrocento, the Medici family ruled over Florence. Lorenzo the Magnificent acted as an arbiter of the Italian Peninsula and, both personally and through his mother, Lucrezia Tornabuoni, became a key patron of the arts. After his death, Florence transitioned to a new republican government.
The National Central Library
1265 Dante (Durante) was born in Florence to Alighiero and Bella, a wealthy family who supported the Guelph faction.
1300 He was elected prior of the Florentine Council. The most quarrelsome of the Guelphs (including Cavalcanti) were exiled.
1315-20 He gave up hope of Florence granting him amnesty and stayed in Verona at the court of Cangrande della Scala and then in Ravenna at Guido Novello da Polenta’s. He wrote Paradiso
Dante Alighieri
Zodiac Sign
Gemini Profession
Civic officer (prior) in Florence and ambassador Following
• Beatrice (Bice) Portinari
• Guido Cavalcanti
• Gemma Donati
• Cangrande della Scala
• Guido Novello da Polenta
He met Beatrice (Bice), the daughter of Folco Portinari, for the first time.
1302 The new podestà, appointed by Pope Boniface VIII, put the former priors on trial, and Dante was found guilty while coming back from Rome.
1321 He fell ill during a journey to Venice as an ambassador and died in Ravenna, where he was buried.
Blocked Contacts
• Municipality of Florence
• Boniface VIII (pope)
Groups
The three crowns (Le tre corone)
1283 He made friends with Guido Cavalcanti: together with others, they wrote love poems that Dante defined the “sweet new style” (dolce Stil novo).
1293-95 He wrote the Vita nuova (New Life). He married Gemma Donati and became a member of the Guild (Arte) of Physicians and Chemists.
1304-08 He traveled to various cities in search of work and support: Treviso, Sarzana, Bologna, and Lucca. He started writing Inferno
1309 He started writing Purgatorio.
1274
Rome
Florence Lucca
Bologna
Sarzana
Ravenna
Verona
Treviso Venice
Raffaello Sanzio, The Disputation of the Holy Sacrament, 1509, fresco (Vatican City, Apostolic Palace,
the meme
Dante belongs here to the group of the activists of the Catholic Church: his profound knowledge and his sacred poem brought him fame as a theologian.
Grave words were told me of my future life; / although, indeed, I feel myself foursquare / against the blows of fortune.
(D. Alighieri, Paradiso, canto 17, ll. 22-24, trans. C. Langdon)
Twoeuro coin, Italian version, minted in 2002.
#Italianlanguage
#title
The laurel wreath, something that Dante never received during his lifetime, is the symbol of the highest poetic glory.
The “aquiline” nose is part of his traditional iconography, stemming from the biography by Giovanni Boccaccio. Dante’s oldest portraits depict him with more delicate features.
Comedy (Sacred Poem)
Dante’s frowning gaze reveals a fearless and incorruptible spirit, truly “foursquare,” struck but not defeated by Fate.
#journey #Hell
#Purgatory #Heaven
@Virgil @Beatrice
#redemption
It is arduous to define the asserted masterpiece of Italian literature written by Dante Alighieri, who is deemed to be the founder of the Italian language. Firstly, we do not possess any autograph manuscript of Dante’s work, which was circulated without the author’s signature. Secondly, the title is not certain, derived from how Dante refers to the poem within the text itself. Lastly, no author before him tried similar endeavor, which is comparable to a fresco of the Last Judgement in the Christian tradition.
What exactly is the literary work we call the Comedy – or, according to Giovanni Boccaccio, Divine Comedy? The answer comes from Dante himself: it is a “comedy,” that is a work mixed and varied, which begins badly and ends happily; and it is a “sacred poem,” inspired by both Earth and Heaven. If we read it in one breath (it is not overly lengthy), the poem appears to be the narrative of a journey in the three realms of the Christian afterlife: Hell (Inferno); Purgatory (Purgatorio); and Heaven or Paradise (Paradiso). The protagonist is the author, Dante Alighieri, who on Good Friday in the year 1300 (March 25th or April 8th) loses his way in a labyrinthine forest and is assisted by the soul of the Latin poet Virgil. The latter accompanies the pilgrim Dante through the abyss of Hell (located under the Earth’s crust in medieval geography) until the mountain of Purgatory (located in the other hemisphere, surrounded by the Ocean). At the summit of the second realm, Virgil is replaced by Beatrice (literally, “the woman bringing beatitude”). She is the Florentine lady – who died in 1290 – who Dante loved and celebrated in his Vita nuova. As his new guide, Beatrice leads Dante through the skies of Heaven and completes his redemption.
#sinners #contrapasso #expiating
#blessed
#100cantos #tercets
#encyclopaedic
@BrunettoLatini #reform
During his extraordinary pilgrimage, Dante meets the souls of the three realms:
▶ The damned sinners, punished in Hell through contrapasso, meaning torments that mirror or oppose their faults: from the slothful (ignavi), who endlessly chase a banner, to the traitors to those who loved them, with Judas Iscariot (who betrayed Christ) and Brutus and Cassius (who betrayed Caesar) being gnawed by Lucifer;
▶ The expiating souls in Purgatory, who serve temporary sentences before reaching Heaven wholly purified;
▶ The blessed souls in Paradise, who enjoy together the vision of God.
This majestic work consists of three parts (cantiche), one for each realm, and comprises 100 cantos in tercets ( terzine ) with interwoven rhymes (ABA BCB etc.). Such a meter allows Dante to weave a continuous narrative, always open to new episodes and characters, as well as to moral, astronomical, geographical, and theological digressions.
Dante’s Comedy sounds encyclopaedic, in that it summarizes the entirety of medieval European Knowledge, based on Christian and Islamic sources. Thanks to the personal library of his mentor, Brunetto Latini, Dante accessed a wealth of varied works. Although he read them through a Western Christian lens, he granted all of them equal cultural dignity. Dante was not a clergyman and could not bear the popes or the ecclesiastical hierarchy. Yet, he was a man of profound faith, maybe a little haughty but deeply invested in advocating for the reform of the political institutions of his time: the Church and the Empire.
T 1
Comedy, Inferno, canto 4o
The First Circle of Hell: a Mediterranean Limbo
After leaving the slothful, Dante and Virgil visit the true first circle of Hell and its numerous sinners. Gathered here are children, men and women who lived before Christ and/or were not baptized. Although they behaved honestly and followed lofty ideals, they lacked faith in Christ, and therefore they cannot join the blessed souls. However, their punishment is mild: a perpetual and melancholic longing for God.
WARM UP!
1 Reply to the following questions together with your classmates.
a. Why are there non-baptized sinners in Christian Hell? Remember that baptism aims at annulling the original sin by Adam and Eve in Eden.
b. Consider the pre-Christian or non-Christian authors (poets, writers, philosophers, scientists, historians, etc.) you have encountered in your studies and reflect on their possible status in the Christian afterlife.
2 Have you ever heard about the Trojan War? Search for its protagonists online and then fill in the table according to their respective faction:
Hector • Achilles • Penthesilea • Aeneas • Helen • Paris
Trojan front
Greek front
Dante and Virgil start their descent
Aheavy thunder-clap broke the deep sleep within my head, so that I roused myself, as would a person who is waked by force;
and standing up erect, my rested eyes I moved around, and with a steady gaze I looked about to know where I might be.
Truth is I found myself upon the verge of pain’s abysmal valley, which collects the thunder-roll of everlasting woes.
So dark it was, so deep and full of mist, that, howsoever I gazed into its depths, nothing at all did I discern therein.
Virgil’s paleness
The first circle of Hell (Limbo) and its quiet sinners
“Into this blind world let us now descend!” the Poet, who was death-like pale, began, “I will be first, and you shall second be.”
And I, who of his color was aware, said: “How am I to come, if you take fright, who are wont to be my comfort when afraid?”
“The anguish of the people here below,” he said to me, “brings out upon my face the sympathy which you take for fear.
Since our long journey drives us, let us go!” Thus he set forth, and thus he had me enter the first of circles girding the abyss.
Therein, as far as one could judge by listening, there was no lamentation, saving sighs which caused a trembling in the eternal air; and this came from the grief devoid of torture felt by the throngs, which many were and great, of infants and of women and of men.
To me then my good Teacher: “Do not ask what spirits these are whom you see here? Now I would have you know, before you go further, that these sinned not; and though they merits have, it is not enough, for they did not have baptism, the gateway of the creed believed by you; and if before Christianity they lived, they did not with due worship honor God; and one of such as these am I myself.
Ruppemi l’alto sonno ne la testa un greve truono, sì ch’io mi riscossi come persona ch’è per forza desta
Dante’s awakening
At the end of the previous canto, Dante had fainted before crossing the Infernal river Acheron, and now he finds himself at the edge of the first circle of Hell.
Virgil as a guide
The Latin poet Virgil brings the pilgrim to his own circle, from where God has invited him to lead Dante through Hell and Purgatory.
The punishment of Limbo’s sinners
Differently from the other circles, here the only punishment is to sigh melancholically because these sinners know that they cannot enjoy God’s presence.
Sinners or non sinners?
According to Dante, the inhabitants of Limbo did not really sin, while according to canonical Catholic theology, all unbaptized human beings bear original sin and commit sins in their lives.
Jesus led the patriarchs from Hell to Heaven
For such defects, and for no other guilt, we are lost, and only hurt to this extent, that, in desire, we live deprived of hope.”
Great sorrow filled my heart on hearing this, because I knew of people of great worth, who in that Limbo suspended were.
“Tell me, my Teacher, tell me, you my Lord,” I then began, through wishing to be sure about the faith which conquers every error;
“came any ever, by his own deserts, or by another’s, hence, who then was blessed?” And he, who understood my covert speech,
replied: “To this condition I was come but newly, when I saw a Mighty One come here, crowned with the sign of victory.
From hence He drew the earliest parent’s shade, and that of his son, Abel, that of Noah, and Moses the law-giver and obedient;
Abram the patriarch, and David king, Israel, with both his father and his sons, and Rachel, too, for whom he did so much,
and many others; and He made them blessed; and I would have you know that, earlier than these, there were no human spirits saved.”
The group of ancient poets
Because he talked we ceased not moving on, but all the while were passing through the wood, the wood, I mean, of thickly crowded shades.
Nor far this side of where I fell asleep had we yet gone, when I beheld a fire, which overcame a hemisphere of gloom.
Somewhat away from it we were as yet, but not so far, but I could dimly see that honorable people held that place.
“O you that honor both art and science, who are these people that such honor have, that it divides them from the others’ life?”
And he to me: “The honorable fame, which speaks of them in your live world above, in Heaven wins grace, which thus advances them.”
ENG-ITA “Limbo”
The first circle’s name is Limbo (“Borderland”): it implies an inbetween condition, where one is a sinner but not punished as other sinners. In English and in Italian, limbo still means a state of uncertainty between two alternatives.
The Harrowing of Hell
After his death on the cross, Christ visited Hell and freed the biblical patriarchs with their wives and families: Adam (the first member of humankind) and his son Abel; Noah, who survived the Flood; Moses, who led Israel from Egypt to the Holy Land; Abram, with whom God made a special covenant; David, the king of Israel; Jacob-Israel, his father Isaac, his twelve children, and his second wife Rachel (to marry her, Jacob had worked 14 years for her father).
Virgil’s wisdom
Dante celebrates his guide both for his general wisdom (“science”) and for his poetic and rhetorical skills (“art”). Here the question concerns the separation of some souls from others.
Homer, Horace, Ovid, and Lucan with Virgil and Dante
And hereupon a voice was heard by me: “Do honor to the loftiest of poets! his shade, which had departed, now returns.”
And when the voice had ceased and was at rest, four mighty shades I saw approaching us; their looks were neither sorrowful nor glad.
My kindly Teacher then began to say: “Look at the one who comes with sword in hand before the three, as if their lord he were.
Homer he is, the sovreign poet; Horace, the satirist, the one that comes next; the third is Ovid, Lucan is the last.
Since each of them in common shares with me the title which the voice of one proclaimed, they do me honor, and therein do well.”
Thus gathered I beheld the fair assembly of those the masters of the loftiest song, which soars like an eagle over the rest.
Then, having talked among themselves awhile, they turned around to me with signs of greeting; and, when he noticed this, my Teacher smiled.
And even greater honor still they did me, for one of their own company they made me, so that amid such wisdom I was sixth.
Thus on we went as far as to the light, talking of things whereof is silence here becoming, even as speech was, where we spoke.
We reached a noble Castle’s foot, seven times encircled by high walls, and all around defended by a lovely little stream.
This last we crossed as if dry land it were; through seven gates with these sages I went in, and to a meadow of fresh grass we came.
There people were with slow and serious eyes, and, in their looks, of great authority; they spoke but seldom and with gentle voice.
We therefore to one side of it drew back into an open place so luminous and high, that each and all could be perceived.
Intanto voce fu per me udita: “Onorate l’altissimo poeta; l’ombra sua torna, ch’era dipartita”.
The four ancient poets
Ancient Greek poet Homer is the leader of this select group, bearing a sword as a sign of authority as well as of the epic genre (Iliad and Odyssey). Then, Virgil mentions three Latin poets: Horace (658 BCE), author of Odes, Epodes, Satires, and Epistles; Ovid (43 BCE - 17 AD), author of Metamorphoses; and Lucan (39 - 65 AD), author of Pharsalia. By greeting Virgil as “the great poet,” they praise poetry as a whole.
Così andammo infino a la Lumera, parlando cose che ’l tacere è bello, sì com’era ’l parlar colà dov’era.
A medieval castle in Hell
Only the noblest spirits have the opportunity to live in an isolated space, which Dante imagines as a medieval castle. The river around the walls and the seven gates allegorically suggest the difficulty of entering the castle and the necessity of resisting temptations to stand out.
The noble castle of great spirits
There on the green enamel opposite were shown to me the spirits of the great, for seeing whom I glory in myself.
I saw Electra with companions many, of whom I knew both Hector and Aeneas, and Caesar armed, with shining falcon eyes.
I saw Camilla with Penthesilea upon the other side, and King Latinus, who with Lavinia, his own daughter, sat.
I saw that Brutus who drove Tarquin out, Lucretia, Julia, Martia and Cornelia, and, all alone, I saw the Saladin.
Then, having raised my brows a little higher, the Teacher I beheld of those that know, seated amid a philosophic group.
They all look up to him, all honor him; there Socrates and Plato I beheld, who nearer than the rest are at his side;
Democritus, who thinks the world chance-born, Diogenes, Anaxagoras and Thales, Empedocles, Heraclitus, and Zeno;
The Trojan heroes
Electra, mother of the founder of the Trojan people; Hector, defeated by Achilles; Aeneas, who fled the war and reached Italy; and the queen of the Amazons Penthesilea.
The Roman world
Aeneas connects the East and the West, Troy and Rome: Caesar, the founder of the future empire; Camilla, a warrior of an Italic people; King Latinus and his daughter Lavinia, who married Aeneas; Lucius Junius Brutus, who expelled the last Etruscan King, Tarquin, in 509 BCE and was the first of the two consuls of the republic. Finally, four Roman matrons: Lucretia, who committed suicide after being abused by the son of King Tarquin; Julia, daughter of Caesar and wife of Pompey; Marcia, wife of Cato the Younger, rival of Caesar; and Cornelia, the austere mother of the two plebeian tribunes, the Gracchi.
The contemplative spirits
Dante lists the most famous Greek philosophers: Aristotle, the “teacher” par excellence and pillar of European medieval thought, together with Socrates and Plato; the pre-Socratic philosophers (Democritus, according to whom the world consists of a casual aggregation of atoms, Anaxagoras, Thales, Empedocles and Heraclitus); Diogenes, founder of the Cynics; and Zeno, founder of the Stoics.
1 Aristotle pointing to the ground 2 Plato pointing to the
3 Socrates in dialogue with his disciples 4 Diogenes the Cynic disdaining the others
Raphael, The School of Athens, 1509-11, fresco (Vatican City, Apostolic Palace, Stanza della Segnatura). Renaissance painter Raphael immortalized various thinkers from ancient Greece to the Middle Ages, many of whom are mentioned by Dante:
of qualities I saw the good collector, Dioscorides I mean; Orpheus I saw, Tully and Livy, and moral Seneca;
Euclid, the geometer, and Ptolemy, Hippocrates, Avicenna, Galen, Averrhoès, who made the famous comment.
I cannot speak of all of them in full, because my long theme drives me on so fast, that often my words fall short of what I did.
A varied group of intellectuals
Here Dante gathers ancient Greek scientists (pharmacologist and botanist Dioscorides, mathematician Euclid, geographer Ptolemy, the theorist of the geocentric system, physicians Hippocrates and Galen), mythical poets (Orpheus and Linus), Latin moral thinkers (orator M. Tully Cicero and philosopher Seneca). Islamic personalities Dante includes non-Christian men: Saladin (1137-93 AD), the Kurdish sultan of Egypt and Syria who defeated the Crusaders and reconquered Jerusalem; Avicenna (980-1037 AD), from Persia, with his famous Book of Healing; Averroës (1126-98 AD), the Andalusian scientist who wrote commentaries on Aristotle’s works.
Dante and Virgil part from the others
The sixfold band now dwindles down to two; my wise Guide leads me by a different path out of the calm into the trembling air;
and to a place I come, where nothing gives light.
(The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, trans. C. Langdon adapted, vol.1, Harvard University Press, Cambridge 1918)
AFTER-READING ACTIVITIES
1 VOCABULARY Place the components of the “noble castle” in the picture.
a. alte mura (lofty walls)
b. un bel fiumicello (a fair stream)
c. sette porte (seven gates)
d. genti di grande autorità (people of great authority)
2 CREATIVE WRITING When Virgil and Dante join the group of ancient poets, the narrator reveals his decision not to share the contents of their conversation (ll. 104-105). Dante proudly proclaims to have been the sixth “amid such wisdom” (l. 102). What issues might they have discussed together? Does this silence resemble a ceremony of initiation? Or is it a rhetorical device to convey privilege and spark reader’s fantasy? Imagine yourself as the “seventh” member of the group and write a dialogue where all the interlocutors, including yourself, discuss a topic of your choice. Then, present and explain your dialogue to the class, and compare it with your classmates’ work.
New Life, Here Is Beatrice!