Open AccessMurders in Shocking Pink: Women, Love and Desire in Rossana Campo’s Noir Fiction
Author(s) -
Claudia Bernardi
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
quaderni d'italianistica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2293-7382
pISSN - 0226-8043
DOI - 10.33137/q.i..v37i1.28283
Subject(s) - bella , romance , narrative , context (archaeology) , representation (politics) , art , literature , field (mathematics) , gender studies , humanities , history , aesthetics , sociology , politics , political science , law , physics , mathematics , archaeology , nuclear physics , pure mathematics
This article analyzes Rossana Campo’s Mentre la mia bella dorme (1999), Duro come l’amore (2005) and Il posto delle donne (2013) in the context of Campo’s work in general, showing how her use of crime genre conventions is specifically designed to reveal flaws and pitfalls inherent in romance narratives. By establishing a complex dialogue between noir and rosa, and by offsetting both traditions with female protagonists who question in different ways the heterosexual paradigm, Campo’s crime novels occupy a unique place in her production, especially in regard to the representation of female desire.