The Changing Portrayals of Gay and Queer Identities In
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Hacettepe University Graduate School of Social Sciences Department of English Language and Literature English Language and Literature THE CHANGING PORTRAYALS OF GAY AND QUEER IDENTITIES IN JULIAN MITCHELL’S ANOTHER COUNTRY, JONATHAN HARVEY’S BEAUTIFUL THING AND MARK RAVENHILL’S MOTHER CLAP’S MOLLY HOUSE Hande DİRİM KILIÇ Ph.D. Dissertation Ankara, 2018 THE CHANGING PORTRAYALS OF GAY AND QUEER IDENTITIES IN JULIAN MITCHELL’S ANOTHER COUNTRY, JONATHAN HARVEY’S BEAUTIFUL THING AND MARK RAVENHILL’S MOTHER CLAP’S MOLLY HOUSE Hande DİRİM KILIÇ Hacettepe Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Department of English Language and Literature English Language and Literature Ph.D. Dissertation Ankara, 2018 v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor, Prof. Dr. A. Deniz Bozer for her patience and support. She has been a role model for me from the earliest stages of my education at Hacettepe University and played an invaluable role in my academic career. I also would like to offer my heartfelt thanks to the committee members. I am indebted to Prof. Dr. Huriye Reis who provided invaluable input for this dissertation, encouraged and inspired me with her wisdom at times of confusion and darkness. I am grateful to Assoc. Prof. Dr. Lerzan Gültekin and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Şebnem Kaya for their genuine kindness and encouragement over the years. I am also thankful to Assist. Prof. Dr. Evrim Doğan Adanur, particularly, for the suggestions she made for the final draft of this dissertation. I would like to express special thanks to Prof. Dr. Aytül Özüm; her guidance and support have not only made me a better academician but a better person. I also thank Ömer Kemal Gültekin; sharing this laborious journey with him made it more bearable. I would like to offer my sincere gratitude to Prof. Dr. Burçin Erol; her infectious enthusiasm and energy have always inspired me. I would also like to thank all distinguished members of the Department of English Language and Literature at Hacettepe University; this department will always be a home to me. I would also like to thank the Department of Western Languages and Literature at Kocaeli University; their support and encouragement made the last year a lot easier. Above all, I am indebted to my family. My husband, Mehmet Kılıç endured this long process with me with unlimited patience and understanding. My parents Handan, Hasan Dirim and my sister Cansu Dirim have always stood by me and always believed in me. I dedicate this dissertation to them. vi ÖZET DİRİM KILIÇ, Hande. The Changing Portrayals of Gay and Queer Identities in Julian Mitchell’s Another Country, Jonathan Harvey’s Beautiful Thing and Mark Ravenhill’s Mother Clap’s Molly House. Doktora Tezi, Ankara, 2018. Eşcinselliğin tiyatro oyunlarında ve sahne üzerinde temsilleri, en eski ve üstü kapalı eserlerde bile metnin ötesinde bir takım sosyal, siyasi ve kültürel görüşleri ve bakış açılarını yansıtmış ve bu görüşlerin kabulüne katkı sağlamıştır. Özellikle, 1970’lerin başından itibaren, eşcinselliğin suç olmaktan çıkmasını ve tiyatrolardaki sansürün son bulmasını takiben, Britanya tiyatrosunda eşcinselliğin temsilinde hızlı bir değişim yaşanmış, 1970’lerde alternatif tiyatrolarda sahnelenen ilk oyunların ardından, gay oyunlar ana akım tiyatrolarda sahnelenmeye başlamıştır. Bu bağlamda, bu tez Julian Mitchell’in Another Country, Jonathan Harvey’in Beautiful Thing ve Mark Ravenhill’in Mother Clap’s Molly House oyunlarında gay ve queer kimlikleri üzerine değişen bakış açılarını, oyunların yazıldıkları dönemlerdeki sosyal, siyasi ve kuramsal tartışmalarla ilişkilendirerek incelemeyi amaçlamaktadır. Birinci Bölüm’de Julian Mitchell’in Another Country oyunu, eşcinselliğin baskılanmış ve özgürleştirilmeye muhtaç bir durum olarak temsili bakımından analiz edilmektedir. İkinci Bölüm’de Jonathan Harvey’nin Beautiful Thing oyunu, gay kimliğini sınırları belli, toplum içinde tanınan bir cinsel kimlik olarak temsili açısından ele alınmaktadır. Üçüncü Bölüm’de Mark Ravenhill’in Mother Clap’s Molly House oyunu gay kimliğinin yapıbozumu ve queer bir kültür yaratımı açısından incelenmektedir. Bu oyunlarda gay ve queer kimliklerinin değişen temsillerinin 20. yüzyılın ikinci yarısında Britanya’daki eşcinsellik ile ilgili sosyal, siyasi ve kuramsal gelişmelere ve tartışmalara ayna tuttuğu savunulmaktadır. Anahtar sözcükler Julian Mitchell, Another Country, Jonathan Harvey Beautiful Thing, Mark Ravenhill Mother Clap’s Molly House, eşcinsellik, gay kimliği, queer kuram, gay tiyatro oyunları, toplumsal kimlik çalışmaları vii ABSTRACT DİRİM KILIÇ, Hande. The Changing Portrayals of Gay and Queer Identities in Julian Mitchell’s Another Country, Jonathan Harvey’s Beautiful Thing and Mark Ravenhill’s Mother Clap’s Molly House. Ph.D. Dissertation, Ankara, 2018. Even in the earliest and most coded forms, the representations of homosexuality in British drama reflected the social, political and cultural perceptions of homosexuality beyond the plays and contributed to their dissemination. From the early 1970s onwards, following the decriminalisation of homosexuality and the abolishment of the censorship, the representations of homosexuality in British drama changed swiftly, and after the first plays staged in the fringe theatres in the 1970s, gay plays started to be staged in the mainstream theatres in Britain. In this context, this dissertation aims at studying the changing portrayals of gay and queer identities in Julian Mitchell’s Another Country, Jonathan Harvey’s Beautiful Thing and Mark Ravenhill’s Mother Clap’s Molly House by relating these plays to the social, political and theoretical discussions on gay and queer identities in the decades they were written in. In Chapter I, Julian Mitchell’s Another Country is analysed in terms of its representation of homosexuality as a repressed state that needs to be liberated. In Chapter II, Jonathan Harvey’s Beautiful Thing is discussed in relation to its presentation of gayness as a stable identity category which is recognized by the society. In Chapter III, Mark Ravenhill’s Mother Clap’s Molly House is examined in terms of its deconstruction of gay identity and the creation of a queer culture. It is argued that the changing ways gay and queer identities are presented in these plays hold a mirror to the social, political and theoretical developments and discussions concerning homosexuality in Britain in the second half of the 20th century. Keywords Julian Mitchell, Another Country, Jonathan Harvey Beautiful Thing, Mark Ravenhill Mother Clap’s Molly House, homosexuality, gay identity, queer theory, gay drama, gender studies viii İÇİNDEKİLER KABUL VE ONAY………………………………………………………….…………..i BİLDİRİM………………………………………………………….…………...….……ii YAYIMLAMA VE FİKRİ MÜLKİYET HAKLARI BEYANI……….……..…….……………iii ETİK BEYAN………………………………………………………...………...…….…...……iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS..……………………………….……………….…...…….v ÖZET…………………………………………………….………………….……...…..vi ABSTRACT…………………………………………………………………………...vii TABLE OF CONTENTS……………………..………………………………...……viii INTRODUCTION………………….…………………………………….……………..1 0.1. History of Homosexuality………….……………………………...……2 0.2. From Gay Identity to Queer Theory …………………………..….…47 0.3. Representations of Homosexuality in British Drama……………60 0.3.1. British Gay Drama………..………………………………...…71 CHAPTER 1: THE REPRESSION OF HOMOSEXUALITY: JULIAN MITCHELL’S ANOTHER COUNTRY ……..……………....……….…................76 CHAPTER 2: BEING GAY AND MOVING INTO THE MAINSTREAM: JONATHAN HARVEY’S BEAUTIFUL THING………………………..………...111 CHAPTER 3: THE DECONSTRUCTION OF GAY IDENTITY AND THE CREATION OF QUEER CULTURE: MARK RAVENHILL’S MOTHER CLAP’S MOLLY HOUSE ….……..………………………..………………………………..146 CONCLUSION……………………………………………………………..…….....190 ix ENDNOTES…………………………………………………………………….…...199 WORKS CITED………………………………………………………………….….205 APPENDIX I: ORIGINALITY REPORTS…………………………………...……227 APPENDIX II: ETHICS BOARD WAIVER FORMS ………………...….………229 1 INTRODUCTION Homosexuality is a commonly and widely used term to describe sexual attraction for those of one’s own sex (“Homosexuality”). Although the definition of homosexuality seems neat and clear, the ways homosexual desires are experienced in individual lives and shape homosexual subjects’ relationship to society are diverse and complicated. This diverse and complicated nature of homosexual acts and their multiple receptions within different historical and social contexts render the creation of a stable universal understanding of homosexual identity problematic. The aim of this dissertation is to study the changes in the perception of gay identity in British society and their representation in British mainstream drama from the 1980s to the 2000s through the analysis of Julian Mitchell’s Another Country (1981), Jonathan Harvey’s Beautiful Thing (1993) and Mark Ravenhill’s Mother Clap’s Molly House (2001) with the help of theoretical discussions on gay identity and queer theory. The scope of this study is limited to the gay plays staged in mainstream theatres in the period between the early 1980s and the early 2000s. First of all, this period marks the creation of the first established and explicit gay plays. As it will be discussed in detail, before the decriminalisation of homosexuality in 1967 and the abolition of censorship in 1968, it was not possible to present a straightforward representation of homosexuality in British drama, and the first plays that were created following the gay liberation were mostly propaganda pieces that aimed to create consciousness among gay readers/audiences. Secondly,