Homosexuality and Liberation Elements of a Gay Critique

A leader of the Italian gay liberation movement in the 1970s, Mario Mieli combined a radical theoretical perspective with a courageous (and often provocative) public persona. He is best known for his Marxist account of homosexuality and homosexual oppression, Elementi di critica omossuale (1977), translated into English in 1980 as Homosexuality and Liberation: Elements of a Gay Critique (1980).The Italian gay movement, while certainly sharing much of its history with that of Britain and elsewhere, has had its own particular experiences and has developed its own original and important ideas, being far more influenced by both Marxism and psychoanalysis than its counterparts in English-speaking countries. This book, published in English for the first time, represents the most comprehensive presentation of the standpoint developed by this radical gay movement, forming an important contribution to a specifically gay critique of society.Investigating the effects of institutionalised heterosexuality on society as a whole, Mario Mieli shows that these extend far beyond the specific problems of gay people. He argues that in the interlocking framework drawn by Marx and Freud, homosexuality stands right in the centre, in a crucial position, and that its liberation is an integral part of the liberation of Eros in general, involving the breakdown of the gender system of masculine and feminine, and leading to an unfettered communication between human beings convergent with the goals of a communist society. His argument provides a basis for a genuinely radical gay movement, a movement that struggles for gay liberation as an inseperable part of human liberation as a whole.Mario Mieli shows how gay people like any other oppressed group have their original and unique mode of struggle and he demonstrates this himself in his writing which is specifically notable for its combination of serious theoretical argument with a gay sensibility and humour.