Male Homosociality, the Femme Fatale, and Gender Relations in Andrea Camilleri’s Il campo del vasaio

Abstract

Andrea Camilleri’s Montalbano series raises serious issues of gender that require analysis and elucidation. The concept of male homosociality (as developed by Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick) is particularly useful for defining the relationship between Montalbano and his deputy Mimì Augello. A close examination of Il campo del vasaio will reveal how the balance of this particular homosocial relationship is upset by the presence of a woman — the femme fatale Dolores — before the status quo is restored through suppression of the female Other. From the homosocial angulation of Il campo del vasaio, it becomes clear that the male workforce of the commissariato is privileged over other relations. Consequently women are marginalized, or useful only as adjuncts to the male narrative, or threats to be neutralized.