LGTBQ lives in Basque contemporary novels

This chapter’s objective is to contribute to research into Basque LGTBQ issues from the perspective of cultural discourse and, specifically, contemporary Basque literature. The analysis of the novels written in Basque between the 1980es and the 2010es shows that literary discourse about the LGTBQ ch...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Egaña Etxeberria, Ibon
Tipo de recurso: capítulo de libro
Fecha de publicación:2020
País:España
Institución:Universidad del País Vasco
Repositorio:Addi. Archivo Digital para la Docencia y la Investigación
OAI Identifier:oai:addi.ehu.eus:10810/71433
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10810/71433
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:basque literature
LGTB+ studies
queer studies
contemporary novel
Descripción
Sumario:This chapter’s objective is to contribute to research into Basque LGTBQ issues from the perspective of cultural discourse and, specifically, contemporary Basque literature. The analysis of the novels written in Basque between the 1980es and the 2010es shows that literary discourse about the LGTBQ characters has ceaselessly changed over the last thirty years in continuous dialogue with many other social and cultural discourses. This chapter shows that national identity is one of Basque LGTBQ literature’s main interlocutors. In the 1980s and 1990s, above all, the nation was a source of identity legitimization in narrative, being the all-covering umbrella that covers all other identities and struggles. In the 2000s, on the other hand, novels put forward narrative strategies for lessening the weight of nationality by placing characters abroad, for instance; however, nationality was still the discourse which overshadowed LGTBQ identity in many of these stories. In novels in the 2010s the national discourse became less important, and it is not represented as a conflict in most works by the new generation of writers. This text explains how over the last ten years queer and feminist theory has become the main source of reference in many novels rather than literary tradition. Butler’s, Wittig’s and Ahmed’s works are sometimes implicitly present, other times explicitly so. The most recent narrative explores subjects including the precariousness of life, the performative side of identity, and critiques of happiness and normativity.