“Amori et dolori sacrum”: canons, differences and figures of gender identity in the cultural panorama of travellers in Capri between the Nineteenth and Twentieth centuries

From an anthropological perspective the author deals with island of Capri as a cultural object. A sea resort since Roman times, a splendid gem of the Mediterranean, Capri was a playground not only for rich Germans and British looking for sexual adventures; it was also the place where genders were perpetually looking for a definite fixation, or identity. The author demonstrates well the ambiguity of the local population, vis-à-vis foreigners, and amongst themselves. In this essay, the links between aesthetic and the erotic strongly surface. The same idea of “beauty” has several applications, and as many nuances.