Bad Romance: Toxic Masculinity, Love, and Heartbreak in Interwar Italian and Turkish Women's Novels, 1923–32

Abstract:By analyzing Sibilla Aleramo's Il frustino (1932), Grazia Deledda's Annalena Bilisini (1927), Suat Derviş's Behire'nin Talipleri (1923) and Gönül gibi (1928), and Nezihe Muddin's Benliǧim benimdir! (1929), this article argues that in interwar authoritarian contexts, women writing about emotional lives functioned as political commentary and critique. By comparing Kemalist Turkey with Fascist Italy, I critically rethink transnational flows in the interwar period by examining sovereign states on the European periphery. The aformentioned authors wrote male characters who embodied a toxic masculinity that complicated notions of the Mediterranean paradigm of honor and shame. Because male love interests felt insecure or embarrassed, female characters found themselves heartbroken. The authors wrote this as a feminist affective constellation, ultimately producing resilience and courage. By studying the experiential, emotional, and affective dimensions of Italian and Turkish women's literature, historians can more comprehensively analyze the authoritarian experience.