The identity performance.

A queer analysis of Goffredo Parise "Il padrone"

Abstract

This paper aims to explore the genesis and the building process of the “worker” identity category, as described in Goffredo Parise’s novel Il padrone (1965). The construction of worker identity, obtained through repetition of standard actions, can be read as a transposition of the definition of performance in queer theory. The novel is written as a grotesque and allegoric fable; this is the reason why the events can be generalized as an exemplary case. Through the analysis of Il padrone, the violent aspect of the worker anthropo-poiesis clearly appears. Il padrone can thus be considered as a text about performativity and its implications, which are the objects of study of queer theory. Eventually, the text illustrates resistance strategies to the process of subjectivation attempted by characters and, through a nihilist perspective, it explores death as the extreme way out from oppression.