Vested voices

Gender Studies continues to be a research field which finds repre-sentation both in Cultural Studies and in various branches of the humanities and social sciences. Within the field of Cultural Studies, the issue of 'vested subjectivity' comprises innumerable hypotheses, that range from linguistics to semiotics, from psycho-critique to the sociology of literature. Some of these will be discussed here, others will stand as indications for further reflection. This pioneering study on Literary transvestism in Italian Litera-ture offers its readers an encounter with literary transvestism through many 'vested voices' as a form of expression forged out of a living tradition of representation and dramatization of Otherness. It comprises old and new discussion on gender and literature, while it spans modern and contemporary Italian authors and narratives. This volume of essays does not claim to exhaust the fields of studies it examines, but rather to contribute, from a theoretical and comparative point of view, to the ongoing discussion on gender and literature. For this reason, it is our hope to stimulate further critical perspectives both on gendered narratives and on the artist's own po-sition in those instances when he/she chooses to vest his/her voice in the garments of the opposite sex thereby raising issues connected to the study and expression of alterity.