L’identité et la sexualité queer de Giovanni Bordoni : discours parallèles sur l’homoérotisme féminin et le travestissement en Italie au milieu du 18e siècle

This dissertation focusses on the Breve storia, a medical biography published in September 1744 by physician and anatomist Giovanni Bianchi. This novella recounts the life and autopsy of a young Roman servant, Giovanni Bordoni, known in many villages in Tuscany as an enthusiastic seducer and womanizer, until his death on June 28th, 1743. At this point, when the body is stripped for the autopsy, the physician notes female reproductive organs. In fact, even though Bordoni led his adult life under a male identity, his biological sex becomes a subject of discussions and writings after his death, immortalizing him as a woman with same-sex desires, cross-dressed as a man. However, by delving into sexuality and gender as they were understood in early modern Europe, this dissertation deconstructs two main claims: first, that female same-sex desires were intrinsically linked to clitoral hypertrophy, second, that gender existed only in a strict normative link to the biological sex. Thus, by analyzing the Breve storia and Bianchi’s correspondence with his readers, it is possible to shed light on the diverse ways of naming and understanding female homoeroticism in the 18th century, linking it for example with genital anatomy, psychology, and emotions. This master’s thesis highlights that, while the early moderns considered that gender’s essence is found in sex, they could understand it as sometimes fluid, but also as not fully masculine or feminine.

Accepted: 2023-05-11T19:54:35Z