Gender Trouble in Italian Narratives of Captivity of the First World War

Savettieri discusses the masculine identity of prisoners of war and its reshaping as recounted and reimagined in the Italian cultural production of the First World War. The aim of this chapter is to analyze the hegemonic image of the prisoner as a devirilized and diminished male in such materials as trench newspapers and propagandistic booklets, discuss its long-term cultural roots and pinpoint alternative patterns of masculinity that emerge in personal accounts of captivity. Ego-documents of officers taken in captivity resonate with both long-term cultural constructions on national emasculation and dominating images of prisoners as troubled males; at the same time, such writings work out personal ways of coping with captivity and showcase a multifaceted image of prisoners’ masculinity