The Center for Italian Studies is pleased to host a lecture by Martín Villagarcía titled:
The Ghost Behind Manuel Puig: Discovering the Mario Fenelli Archive
Mario Fenelli remains an enigmatic, ghostly figure who often retreated into the background, yet he was a constant, vital presence in the life of his great friend, Manuel Puig. While Fenelli is immortalized in Italian film credits and unpublished screenplays co-authored with Puig, his true significance lies in his own scattered archive. Escaping homophobic oppression in Argentina through a "sexual exile" to Europe, Fenelli became the primary catalyst for Puig's mythical transition from cinema to literature. It was Fenelli’s own unpublished childhood stories that inspired Puig to write La traición de Rita Hayworth. This presentation exhumes Fenelli's forgotten papers—including the vital correspondence housed right here at the University of Notre Dame—to shed light on a silenced generation and rescue this pivotal, shadowy figure from oblivion.
Martín Villagarcía is among the 2026 recipients of the Italian Studies Library Research Award and is currently in residence at the University of Notre Dame. He holds a Ph.D. in Literature from the National University of La Plata (UNLP). His doctoral research focused on the Manuel Puig Archive, and he is currently investigating the creative partnership between Manuel Puig and Mario Fenelli. He serves as a professor and researcher at the National University of San Martín (UNSAM), the University of Buenos Aires (UBA), and the National University of La Plata (UNLP).
The event is co-sponsored by the Center for Italian Studies and Hesburgh Libraries.
Originally published at italianstudies.nd.edu.