DIVA Versionmaster Thesis Makz Bjuggfält 20170703
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! Beyond Morality Alternative Gay Narratives in Mark Ravenhill’s Shopping and Fucking and Dennis Cooper’s The Sluts Makz Bjuggfält Field of study: Literature Level: Master Credits: 45 Thesis Defence: June, 2017 Supervisor: Björn Sundberg Department of Literature Master’s Thesis in Literature Because – look – this bit. It doesn’t end like this. He’s always got something. He gets me in the room, blindfolds me. But he doesn’t fuck me. Well not him, not his dick. It’s the knife. He fucks me – yeah – but with a knife. So… – Shopping and Fucking, 1996 When I shoot dope, I don’t think if I do too much I’m going to overdose. I do as much as I feel like it to get as high as I can. When I let some fucking asshole have me for money, I don’t tell him what he can’t do, I just go with whatever he wants, because it’s bullshit otherwise. I got married because I wanted to be with Elaine, and she wanted that, and I went for it. If you’re still into that weird shit, that’s the way it is. If I’m going to let you have sex with me, then you have sex with me the way you want. if I don’t wake up the next morning, that’s the way it is. – The Sluts, 2004 Because it flickers disturbing light onto the darkest nights of human souls, illuminating the visceral cravings and obsessions that erupt when the psychosexual desire police goes on break, this fiction has been deemed at various moment, the most controversial of any being written today. – Lev, Leora, 2006 Is this for real? Is that a stupid question? – The Sluts, 2004 ENTRANCE // LITTLE DICTIONARY twink a younger man with no body hair and boyish appearance, hustler a man who is selling sex, cut/uncut an uncut dick is not circumcised while a cut dick is circumcised, bareback the sexual practice among gay men to having unprotected anal sex, poz an HIV positive person, faggot a derogatory term for a gay male, fisting a sexual practice where one partner uses the hand to satisfy the other partner in the rectum and/or vagina, daddy an older gay male person, john a man paying for sex, trade a person selling sex, queen/queeny a derogatory or self-identifying term for an effeminate gay man, scat a sexual practice including feces, pillowbiter a derogatory term for a gay male, princess di princess of wales 1981-1997, dead in a car crash, escort a sex worker, lol an internet slang expression meaning laughing out loud, s&m/sm an abbreviation for sado-masochism, cbt an abbreviation for cock and ball torture, snuff a sex video including a murder, bottom a gay male being the receptive part in anal sex, shitstabber a derogatory term for a gay male, jailbait a person under the legal age of consent for sex, top a gay male being the penetrator in anal sex, ws// water-sports a sexual practice sex including piss, rimming/eating ass analingus, a sexual practice where one part is satisfying the other part by licking the rectum, bang stick a dick, poppers a party drug used by mainly gay men, muscle relaxing and therefore often used in connection to anal sex, a shag a british slang term for sexual intercourse, scag/smack a slang term for heroin, wino a derogatory term for a homeless alcoholic, kurt cobain the singer of the us american grunge band nirvana, death by suicide 1994, e/mdma a psychoactive drug often used in party culture, techno music a type of repetitive electronic music, related to rave culture, the lion king a 90s blockbuster movie made by disney, inspired by shakespeare’s hamlet, crystal meth methamphetamine, a central nervous system stimulant often used as a drug, bo a shortening for body odor, hickey a bruise caused by kissing or sucking the skin, kink/kinky a term for sexually non-standard practices, sugar daddy a man supporting a younger person economically or through gifts, justin timberlake an us american pop artist, bondage a sexual practice where one part is being bound or physically restrained in other ways, vanilla a term for conventional sex or sexual behaviour within the range of what is considered consensual, ff see fistfucking, cum a slang term for sperm, versatile a gay male able to perform as both bottom and top, unzipped magazine a pornographic gay magazine published until 2008, crack a form of cocaine that can be smoked, bb see bareback, kevorkian jack kevorkian (1928-2011) also known as dr death, an us american euthanasia activist who claimed to have assisted at least 130 patient to end their lives, men’s best a czech gay porn distributor, bug chasing the act of actively attempting to contract hiv through sex, trick a person paying for sex, nick and aaron carter nick is one of the most profiled members of the us american boy band backstreet boys, aaron is his younger brother, brat pack a group of east coast us american authors during the 1980s, g-rated general admission, a term coined by the us american film-rating system indicating a movie not having offensive content, skeezebag a derogatory term for a working class woman, insinuating she is promiscuous, junkie a drug addict, perineum the region of the body between the pubic symphysis and the coccyx, advocate an us american lgbt magazine, fergie also known as sarah, duchess of york and prince andrew’s ex-wife, tool an us american alternative rock band, double penetration the sexual practice of two persons penetrating a third part at the same time, con job an act of duping or swindling, take that a british 90s boy band, three of the members names were gary, robbie and mark, tcp a liquid antiseptic popular in the uk, barney, betty, peeble characters from the cartoon the flintstones, anestethic a drug to prevent pain, girl a term used by gay men to denote other gay men, dope drugs, most commonly referring to heroin, wicca a contemporary pagan new religious movement, speedball the use of cocaine with heroin or morphine, raw having sex without condom, mushroom head a penis with a very large head, consent is when someone agrees, gives persmission, or says ”yes” to sexual activity with other persons, consent is always freely given, Abstract The gay male emerged as a visible public consumer during 1990s, when the LGBTQ movement in the United Kingdom and the United States was marked by conflicting commercial and political motives, heightened by the AIDS crisis. The cultural tension surrounding the gay male subject was reflected through various literary expressions. In the United Kingdom Mark Ravenhill’s Shopping and Fucking (1996), as part of the in-yer-face theatre, exploded in the face of the bourgeoisie. In the US America Dennis Cooper’s highly publicised George Miles Cycle (1989-2000), was followed by The Sluts (2004) as part of the transgressive literature, provoking both straight and gay communities. Through an analysis of themes such as capitalism, commerce, hyperreality, internalised fear, desire, and violence in the works, an alternative image of the gay male is distinguished. This is an image of the gay male subject that is complex, multi-faceted, contradictory and polyvalent. The characters relate differently to the hegemonic hyperreal role model, but are exposed to the same social structure that dictates their living conditions and positioning them as objects possible to practice violence on. The works provide a widened and complicated image the public image of the gay male. Their countercultural narratives trace how the gay male subject have been affected by the heteronormative society. When the provided stereotype is too narrow to express the burden and the joy of the contemporary gay male subject, alternatives, like the depictions by Ravenhill and Cooper, may allow the subject to fully possess the gay experiences of pain, sorrow and anger that he has been forced to bear. This research explores how the violence within the texts holds a liberating potential. Key Words: Mark Ravenhill, Shopping And Fucking, Dennis Cooper, The Sluts, Gay Male Violence, Gay Capitalism, Gay Consumerism, Gay Hyperreality, Gay Simulacra, Gay Civilisation, Gay Authenticity, Blank Fiction, Transgressive Literature, In Yer Face, Cool Britannia. 1. Towards a Land Beyond Morality - An Introduction ......................................................1 1.1. Transgressive Fiction in the US and In-Yer-Face Theatre in the UK ................................1 1.2. A Post-Gay Context ...........................................................................................................3 1.3. A Theoretical Seed .............................................................................................................4 2. Maps of the Wilderness - The Material ............................................................................5 2.1. Publication, Premiere and Reception in Sweden ...............................................................5 2.2. Forbidden Fruit - A Short Reflection on the Choice of Material .......................................7 2.3. An American-British Bond ................................................................................................8 2.4. Guidance – Introductions to the Narratives .......................................................................9 3. A Path Through the Land Beyond Morality - Methodology and Distribution ...........16 3.1. The Dialectic Reading Act ...............................................................................................16 3.2. Clusters and Hubs ............................................................................................................17 3.3. The Theatre Play Beyond the Text ...................................................................................18