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Pájaro, Bugarron : An Analysis of Gay Identity in Dominican Poetry

This thesis conducts an analysis of gay identity in Dominican poetry through a queer reading on Frank García’s poetry collection: Lo que escribí mientras esperabas en una habitación vacía (2023). The Dominican society in which the bildungsroman narrative takes place is contextualized as a tender culture, yet largely not acceptant of homosexuality and nonheteronormative forms of gender expression, with high levels of violence against gay people, including at the hands of police and militiamen. The aim of the investigation is to both expand the limited existing body of research analyzing gay Dominican literature, as well as identifying and exploring intersecting factors that detrimentally contribute to the homophobia that the author endures as reflected in his writing. It is concluded that such factors permeating his experience intersecting with homophobia are the peripherical position of Dominican Republic in Spanish-speaking literature and the world system, the relevance of Christianity in Dominican Republic, a vulnerable social class, and his mixed race. This investigation also acknowledges the construction of blackness in Dominican Republic in opposition to Haiti, and the subsequent rejection of several mixed race Dominicans to identify as black, but rather using terms such as trigueño, moreno, or mulato (even though the latter is pejorative) to refer to themselves instead. The author rejects colorist discourses and both claims and embraces his black queer Dominican identity in his writing, further humanizing a highly disregarded and marginalized demographic in mainstream literature and arguably the world system: black gay Dominican men.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:liu-204595
Date January 2024
CreatorsRamos Vicario, Alberto
PublisherLinköpings universitet, Tema Genus
Source SetsDiVA Archive at Upsalla University
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeStudent thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text
Formatapplication/pdf
Rightsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

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