L'arte di perdere peso di Mario Fortunato, ovvero il paradigma dell'esilio in eta contemporanea'.

To date very little scholarly work has been carried out on this popular Italian gay writer whose novels have been translated into various languages and who in June 2007 came second in the selection for the prestigious literary prize Premio Strega. Through the analysis of the some of the key characters of Fortunato's L'arte di perdere peso, this article offers an analysis of the significance of the concept of exile in our contemporary era and of the postmodern obsession with the body. Dainotto's concept of postmodern sublime and Boym's notion of ironic nostalgia explain the characters' relationship to various physical ailments affecting them.