Jineterismo, frequently used as a synonym of prostitution, became a widely used term in Cuba in the 1990s. Perceived by some as a social problem that needed to be eliminated, and as a liberating economic strategy by others, the term is discussed in major studies on contemporary Cuba and often mentioned by travel writers outside of Cuba. Some scholars define jineterismo as the new female strategy adopted by young women to obtain hard currency, on the other hand, an influential Cuban politician, criticised jineteras, stating that they were immoral and embarrassing to Cuba. This study seeks to understand the meanings and practices of jineterismo from a bottom up perspective. Using ethnography to locate answers about jineterismo, I explore the meanings of the concept based on the views of those that Cuban society labels as jineteras. The central argument put forward in this study is that jineterismo has to be analysed as a diverse set of practices caused by a diverse set of factors, and that it involves a heterogeneous group of individuals. Jineterismo, I argue, ranges from the struggle to obtain hard currency to the practices involved in developing and maintaining romantic relationships with tourists, and is strongly informed by the desire to emigrate abroad. While jineterismo currently appears to be embedded in discourses of prostitution, this thesis highlights the romantic side of jineterismo and brings to the fore young Cuban women’s perceptions of Cuban men and life in Cuba, views that contrast significantly with their positive images of Europeans and the Western world. More importantly, the thesis improves our knowledge of jineterismo by offering a new perspective into the reasons that lead young Cuban women to seek relationships outside Cuba.

This thesis examines the syntax of the sentence and the style of three of Alberto Arbasino’s early works: Le piccole vacanze (1957), Il ragazzo perduto (1959) and Fratelli d’Italia (1963). The period in which these works were written and published was one of great linguistic changes, with Italian starting to become the language spoken by the majority of the population and the consequent formation of a new variety, the italiano dell’uso medio. This social evolution has also consequences for the language of narrative: whereas some authors embrace the lingua media and a clear, communicative style (stile semplice), others reject it and opt for linguistic experimentation. Although Arbasino is typically placed in this second slant of narrative writing, one cannot so easily assign him to a group or stream, since from the beginning of his career he developed a personal poetics influenced by modernist writers, as well as his own ideas on language and style. The aims of this study are first of all to chart the birth and diachronic evolution of Arbasino’s style, and evaluate the influence of his syntactic choices on it. Then investigate how the syntax of each work compares to the lines of development of contemporary Italian and to the language of contemporary narrative. My analysis begins with a comprehensive outline of the features of contemporary Italian and of the styles of writing in post-war narrative, ending with a focus on the character of Arbasino’s poetics and ideas on language and style in the decade 1954-1964. A brief chapter then illustrates the methodology used, based on quantitative analysis of syntactic aspects, and clarifies terminology. Thereafter, the core of the thesis is composed of three case studies that examine thoroughly the syntax of the sentence and other important syntactic devices of the three works separately, comparing data with corpora of Italian and with studies on narrative language. Finally, a concluding chapter highlights the lines of development of syntax and style in the three works. On the basis of this research, it is clear that the syntax of the sentence places Arbasino among experimental writers tending to break with the linguistic standard. Moreover, Arbasino’s syntactic choices in the three works reflect an increasing distance from traditional literary modes of representation and the progressive affirmation of his own literary project, founded in the poetics of realismo critico.