Between ‘Men’: Masculinities and Female (Perverse) Desire in Dacia Maraini’s Donna in Guerra

Abstract

Representations of masculinities in Dacia Maraini’s Donna in guerra (1975) have received scarce critical attention. Against a backdrop of feminist criticism that deals with female characters and female emancipation, this article focuses on portrayals of non-dominant masculinities and on representations of perverse female desires as sites of denaturalization of the link between men and power. Drawing on recent scholarship on masculinity, on gay studies, and on theories of desire by Eve Sedgwick, Teresa De Lauretis, and Mario Mieli, I follow a two-fold direction. First, I analyse the silent economy of male desires (hustling, male entrustment) that shape non-dominant masculinities, thus showing that some men — because of class, geography and sexuality — suffer oppression in the novel. Then I argue that female perverse desire (especially lesbian desire) emerges to foreground a gender power differential, which ensures a dichotomization of female homosociality and homoeroticism, and results in the ultimate elision of lesbianism.