Browsing by Subject "sexuality"

Tutkielma käsittelee kuubalaisen runoilijan Carilda Oliver Labran valikoiduissa runoissa esiintyvää seksuaalisuutta, erotiikkaa sekä intohimon ja rakkauden diskurssia kuubalaisen kulttuurin näkökulmasta. Carilda Oliver Labra on 1920-luvulla Kuubassa syntynyt naisrunoilija, joka on tullut tunnetuksi ennen kaikkea eroottisista runoistaan. Ensimmäiset runonsa hän julkaisi 1940-luvulla, jolloin ne aiheuttivat paheksuntaa. Tutkielman tavoitteena on luoda yleiskäsitys kuubalaisesta rakkauden kokemuksesta sekä naisen seksuaalisesta heräämisestä 1940-luvun Kuubassa aina 1980-luvulle asti. Tutkimukseen on valittu seitsemän runoa 1940-luvulta aina 1980-luvun alkuun asti. Runot edustavat Labran eroottista tuotantoa ja luovat yleiskatsauksen hänen tyyliinsä kirjoittaa eroottista runoutta. Runot myös kertovat Labran omaa elämäntarinaa, sijoittuen mm. hänen avioliittojensa ajalle, sekä toisen avioimiehen menetykseen, joka vaikutti tuntuvasti Labran tekemiin runoihin. Teoriataustana tutkimuksessa käytetään Luce Irigarayn sekä Hélène Cixousn ajatuksia rakkaudesta, parisuhteista sekä naisten kirjoittamisesta. Teorioiden tukena toimii ymmärrys naiseuden ja rakkauden käsityksestä yleisellä tasolla sekä Kuuban sisäisesti. Tämän lisäksi tulkinta sijoitetaan Kuuban historiaan. Tutkimusmenetelmänä toimii runoanalyysi sekä diskurssianalyysi. Carilda Oliver Labran runous heijastelee kuubalaista käsitystä rakkaudesta, mutta myös osoittaa uuden tavan luoda naisen seksuaalisuutta ja kirjoittaa erotiikkaa naisen näkökulmasta Kuubassa 1940-luvulta aina 1980-luvulle. Carilda toimi vastoin yleisiä odotuksia ja stereotypioita ja osoitti, että myös naisella on oikeus eroottisiin ajatuksiin ja seksuaalisuutensa ilmaisuun.

In my master’s thesis (pro gradu) I analyze three novels that are set in the future: The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood, The Circle by Dave Eggers, and Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart. I suggest that while the novels share a great deal of tropes with such dystopian classics as Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, Geroge Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, and Yevgeni Zamyatin’s Мы (trans. We), they also differ from these novels to a significant degree. For this reason, I suggest approaching them as corporatocratic dystopias. In the analysis of generic dystopian characteristics in the novels, I refer to Erica Gottlieb’s (2001) notions of dystopian fiction. Another important literary concept in my study is satire, in the analysis of which I refer to Dustin H. Griffin’s (1994) views on satire as a playful and questioning genre. Central for all dystopias is the notion of a dystopian waning: the implied author of a dystopia exaggerates and ridicules in order to warn a contemporaneous reader against dystopian developments that take place in the reader’s own reality. The elementary difference between the three novels I analyze and Gottlieb’s characterizations concerns the novels’ description of tyranny. Traditionally, dystopias depict the supremacy of a state or a political party. In the novels I investigate in my thesis, the negative developments that take place in society are closely linked to the fact that corporations have gained power at the cost of political rulers, i.e. to the birth of a corporatocracy. I approach the question of power with the help of Antonio Gramsci’s (1975/1992) two dimensions of power: hegemony and dominance. I argue that unlike earlier dystopias, in which tyranny manifests itself in coercive deeds of dominance, the kind of corporatocracy the three novels depict functions to a great extent through hegemony, which is based on consent. In the three novels, corporations renew and uphold their power by maintaining excessive consumerism and mediatisation in society. In the analysis of these developments, I turn to Jürgen Habermas’ (1962/1989) views on mediatisation, and to Jean Baudrillard’s (1970/1998 and 1981/1994) and Joseph D. Rumbo’s (2002) conceptions on consumer society. The effects of consumerism penetrate also the private sphere in the novels, and thus questions about the body, sex, gender and sexuality are central to my thesis. Additionally, the novels seem to suggest that corporatocracy threatens reciprocity and togetherness between people, and alienates them from nature and from religion. I approach these themes with the help of Baudrillard’s theorisations on the body in consumer culture and Luce Irigaray’s (1985) discussions on patriarchy and women as commodities. The central outcome of my study is that the characters in the novels do not merely appear as identifiable victims of corporatocracy, or as fearless heroes who challenge the tyranny. Rather, as members of their fictional societies, the characters also contribute to the establishment of corporatocracy. I suggest that the dystopian warning all three novels eventually communicate leads directly to the behaviour, norms and ideologies of the characters, and finally, to human nature. Thus, through their characters, the implied authors of these novels encourage their readers to critically assess also their own roles as members of society.

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Kyrgyz society got entangled in discussions about what it means to be Kyrgyz. Even though Kyrgyzstan has experienced a surge in nationalism over the last decades, it is only since recently that non-heteronormative sexualities are increasingly constructed as a threat to the continued existence of the Kyrgyz nation. Based on five in-depth interviews with Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) individuals, I explore how they rationalise the increasing homophobia in Kyrgyz society and what kind of behavioural strategies they adopt to cope with the hostile environment. In particular, I assess whether the discursive exclusion of LGBT individuals from the Kyrgyz nation alters their relationship with the nation and the state. The research participants demonstrate an awareness for the connection between increasing nationalism and worsening attitudes against LGBT people and report corresponding adjustments in their behaviour, ranging from adaptation and hiding strategies to activism and emigration. While all respondents have a negative relationship with the Kyrgyz state, most report a decreasing sense of belonging to the Kyrgyz nation amid growing homophobia as well. These results suggest that the increased emphasis on the purportedly heteronormative nature of the Kyrgyz nation succeeds in redefining individual belonging to the nation and shifting the imagined boundaries of the nation.

I research the official censorship of print by the Catholic Church and its connection to the censorship of 16th century Italian satire. From the perspective of church history, I consider how the bulla Inter sollicitudines declared in 1515 regarding the pre-emptive censorship of printed literature affected authors of satire, and how it changed the way these authors discussed politics and theology. My starting point is the Church's desire to censor the printing press pre-emptively. We can see from the papal bulls how the Church is afraid of the threat of heresy; they feel that the printing press has to me censored so that lay people would not stray to the wrong path. Even if this censorship was not specifically pointed at erotic satire, the regulations led to the observation of every piece of printed art and literature. I claim that the authors wanted to censor their works beforehand if the works were meant for public consumption. I compare two erotic satires of the 1520s to each other. I present Cazzaria by Antonio Vignali as an example of an uncensored work and Il Marescalco by Pietro Aretino as contrast as an example of a play meant for the public. I refer to the Index Librorum Prohibitorum -catalogue started in 1557, in which the Church placed the works, authors, and prints it condemned. With it I compare the Church's reception of Cazzaria and Il Marescalco. For this I will go through the three first printed editions of the Index from 1559, 1564, and 1589 respectively; we have digital versions of these editions provided by the Bavarian State Library. In these editions I search for the names of Aretino and Vignali as well as their works. I then find out that all of Aretino's works (opera omnia) were placed in the Index on its first year in print, whereas Vignali nor his work never ended up in these editions. I ponder the reason as to why this might be. I conclude the research by stating that the infamy of the author or their work affected their placement into the Index. Il Marescalco ended up into the Index due to Aretino's fame and not because to the contents of the play since all his works ended up in the Index immediately in 1559 — even if my research points out that Il Marescalco did not contain any especially scandalous or explicit content. In contrast, Vignali and his work did not end up in the Index at least during this first century, even if Cazzaria was purposefully degrading, heretical, and provocative — meaning it meets the requirements to be put into the Index.