The 1960s and early 1970s definitely saw the generalized eroticization of Italian media; however,... more The 1960s and early 1970s definitely saw the generalized eroticization of Italian media; however, approximately from the second half of the 1970s, the sexualization of the mediascape was taken to its furthest extent, as the boundaries of explicit representation were broken and pushed from softcore towards hardcore. Through an exploration of the Italian adult press of the time and through an examination of the phenomenon of the ‘hardcore versions’ (Italian erotic films ‘pornified’ for export), this article provides a few starting points in order to draft a first (and necessarily partial) reconstruction of the stages through which pornography gained ground within the Italian cultural context during the second half of the 1970s.
After the “digital turn,” expansion of sexual representations has taken shape quantitatively (tha... more After the “digital turn,” expansion of sexual representations has taken shape quantitatively (thanks to the multiplication of production and distribution channels) and qualitatively (giving rise to a plurality of new representational forms). In this context, several social groups – including women and non-normative sexual subcultures – have obtained full citizenship rights within the “pornosphere,” moving beyond their traditional marginalization or, indeed, exclusion. These “nonconventional” pornographies exist in a dialectical relationship with mainstream production in so far as they are at the same time a development and a repudiation of the latter (on an aesthetic, economic and political level). This volume investigates the emergences of alternative pornographies, highlighting their discursive heterogeneity, their cultural status and connections to identities and non-normative practices, and their role in redefining the very idea of pornography. The publication maps the main area...
One could consider the Seventies an important testing ground for the development of audiovisual p... more One could consider the Seventies an important testing ground for the development of audiovisual pornography in Italy. On the one hand, the increasing popularity of man-only magazines during this decade has contributed to the growth of a specific cinematic audience with distinctive features. On the other hand, authors and technicianswithin the Italian filmindustry itself have experimentedwith newmodes of representation of sexual acts (hard-core inserts in soft-core movies and/or double versions) that would only be fully realized in the Eighties. This article aims at describing the process throughwhich some peculiar characteristics of Italian adult magazines and erotic films of the Seventies have to some extent “prepared” the way for the hard-core cinematic production of the following decade.
ABSTRACTThis article reads gonzo pornography as a stylistic model, in order to go beyond current ... more ABSTRACTThis article reads gonzo pornography as a stylistic model, in order to go beyond current interpretations that see it as either a genre merely based on degrading sexual practices or a filmmaking form primarily based on the active role of the camera. Drawing on theoretical notions derived from cinema and media studies, we analyze the stylistic model of gonzo according to four different (albeit interrelated) dimensions: representative/performative; technical/expressive; enunciative/communicative; and semio-pragmatic. This integrated approach allows us to account for the semiotic and aesthetic complexity of gonzo pornography, as well as for its specificity.
Through a short survey of the sexualisation of Italian media and culture during the Sixties and S... more Through a short survey of the sexualisation of Italian media and culture during the Sixties and Seventies and through the analysis of the cineromanzo drawn fromthe sexy comedy Quante volte… quella notte (Mario Bava, 1971), this essay aims to trace a brief history of the Italian sexy cineromanzi of the Seventies, highlighting their particular relationship with contemporary exploitation movies and adult magazines.
The 1960s and early 1970s definitely saw the generalized eroticization of Italian media; however,... more The 1960s and early 1970s definitely saw the generalized eroticization of Italian media; however, approximately from the second half of the 1970s, the sexualization of the mediascape was taken to its furthest extent, as the boundaries of explicit representation were broken and pushed from softcore towards hardcore. Through an exploration of the Italian adult press of the time and through an examination of the phenomenon of the ‘hardcore versions’ (Italian erotic films ‘pornified’ for export), this article provides a few starting points in order to draft a first (and necessarily partial) reconstruction of the stages through which pornography gained ground within the Italian cultural context during the second half of the 1970s.
After the “digital turn,” expansion of sexual representations has taken shape quantitatively (tha... more After the “digital turn,” expansion of sexual representations has taken shape quantitatively (thanks to the multiplication of production and distribution channels) and qualitatively (giving rise to a plurality of new representational forms). In this context, several social groups – including women and non-normative sexual subcultures – have obtained full citizenship rights within the “pornosphere,” moving beyond their traditional marginalization or, indeed, exclusion. These “nonconventional” pornographies exist in a dialectical relationship with mainstream production in so far as they are at the same time a development and a repudiation of the latter (on an aesthetic, economic and political level). This volume investigates the emergences of alternative pornographies, highlighting their discursive heterogeneity, their cultural status and connections to identities and non-normative practices, and their role in redefining the very idea of pornography. The publication maps the main area...
One could consider the Seventies an important testing ground for the development of audiovisual p... more One could consider the Seventies an important testing ground for the development of audiovisual pornography in Italy. On the one hand, the increasing popularity of man-only magazines during this decade has contributed to the growth of a specific cinematic audience with distinctive features. On the other hand, authors and technicianswithin the Italian filmindustry itself have experimentedwith newmodes of representation of sexual acts (hard-core inserts in soft-core movies and/or double versions) that would only be fully realized in the Eighties. This article aims at describing the process throughwhich some peculiar characteristics of Italian adult magazines and erotic films of the Seventies have to some extent “prepared” the way for the hard-core cinematic production of the following decade.
ABSTRACTThis article reads gonzo pornography as a stylistic model, in order to go beyond current ... more ABSTRACTThis article reads gonzo pornography as a stylistic model, in order to go beyond current interpretations that see it as either a genre merely based on degrading sexual practices or a filmmaking form primarily based on the active role of the camera. Drawing on theoretical notions derived from cinema and media studies, we analyze the stylistic model of gonzo according to four different (albeit interrelated) dimensions: representative/performative; technical/expressive; enunciative/communicative; and semio-pragmatic. This integrated approach allows us to account for the semiotic and aesthetic complexity of gonzo pornography, as well as for its specificity.
Through a short survey of the sexualisation of Italian media and culture during the Sixties and S... more Through a short survey of the sexualisation of Italian media and culture during the Sixties and Seventies and through the analysis of the cineromanzo drawn fromthe sexy comedy Quante volte… quella notte (Mario Bava, 1971), this essay aims to trace a brief history of the Italian sexy cineromanzi of the Seventies, highlighting their particular relationship with contemporary exploitation movies and adult magazines.
I saggi raccolti in questo volume muovono tra studi culturali, star studies e gender studies per ... more I saggi raccolti in questo volume muovono tra studi culturali, star studies e gender studies per riflettere sulla messa a tema delle identità femminili nel cinema italiano, con qualche incursione feconda nei territori francese e hollywoodiano, appuntando lo sguardo sulle narrazioni del divismo e sul ricorrere, al loro interno, delle figure di Cenerentola, di Galatea e di Pigmalione. Sono costrutti figurativi e simbolici che, a ben guardare, rimandano a una fioritura di racconti polimorfi che non chiudono le figure femminili nelle linee di un disegno prevedibile ma le rilanciano e moltiplicano. Le Cenerentole-Galatee si fanno sante o perdute; si ribellano ai Pigmalioni-principi azzurri o li rimodellano a loro volta; rivendicano una autogenesi nelle scelte e nei ruoli che interpretano; reclamano un’identità molteplice nell’ironia affilata della scrittura o nei passi leggeri delle protagoniste dei melodrammi; così che è sempre il passo di Galatea-Cenerentola a condurre la danza.
In the 2018 edition of the Gorizia Spring School, the main objective of the Porn Studies section ... more In the 2018 edition of the Gorizia Spring School, the main objective of the Porn Studies section is to explore the margins and extremes of pornography in contemporary mediasphere, as well as in its historical developments. The notions of margin and marginality may refer to " the place of repressed or subordinated textual meanings " (Brooker 2003: 152), but also to the specific position of non-mainstream intellectuals, subjects and social groups. In this sense, margin(ality) can either be a place of alienation, social exclusion, and normative oppression or a " space of radical openness " and a " position and place of resistance " (hooks 2015 [1989]: 228, 231; see also: Walker 1999), from which it is possible to re-articulate dominant discourses and produce new meanings and interpretative perspectives. At the same time, extremities and extremes can be understood in Foucauldian terms as places in which power becomes " capillary " (Foucault 1980: 39) and productive – that is where power is materialized in actual practices and produces real effects (Colucci 2004: 128) on bodies and subjectivities. In our view, pornography can be understood as both a margin and an extreme of mainstream culture. In this perspective, it represents one of the places in which normative discourses and power dynamics are at their most visible and effective; on the other hand, however, pornography can sometimes be seen as the space of production of counter-discourses that might disrupt dominant perceptions and beliefs about gender, sexuality and the body. With this in mind, we aim to analyse the repressed or subordinated textual and social meanings that characterize (or, conversely, that are produced by) pornography in its different historical and geographical forms, as well as to investigate the micro-politics of power at play in pornographic media and representations and their possible subversive re-articulations.
Following the so-called "digital revolution", dramatic transformations have affected the ways in... more Following the so-called "digital revolution", dramatic transformations have affected the ways in which cinema is produced, consumed and perceived, to the extent that it seems to have gone "beyond" itself: beyond its very language and discourse; its traditional consumption practices and spaces; its position and function within the social (as well as the medial) sphere. As a consequence, during the last two decades, research in film studies has significantly widened its scope: the study of cinema has been re-articulated in several fields of inquiry and through a variety of methodological approaches and (inter)disciplinary perspectives, in an attempt to keep up with these most recent developments. This section of Cinéma&Cie aims therefore to function as a permanent observatory of this "beyondness".
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