Inscribing male homosexuality in the works of Filipino gay playwrights

• Main Author: Torres, Gerardo Zaragosa
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2002
• Subjects: Gays' writings; Drama > Technique; Authors and the theater; English Language and Literature
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_doctoral/908
• Institution: De La Salle University

This study begins from the assumption that sexuality is always embedded (consciously or unconsciously) on one's writing. In the case of most gay writers, they explicitly inscribe in their sexuality in their works by writing about the homosexual experience. There are gay writers, however, who also explore non-gay themes in their works. And since one cannot write outside his/her sexual identity, it follows that even the non-gay works of these writers can be read in a gay way.Drama criticism in our country hardly addresses the question of how same-sex orientation or preference informs one's writing. Precisely because not much research has been done on homosexual inscription in Philippine drama, this study examines the linkage between sexuality and writing in the gay and non-gay works of Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero, Tony Perez, Nicolas Pichay, and our other gay playwrights in English and Filipino. This dissertation shows how sexuality informs the construction of the works of our gay playwrights. It looks into the ways in which our gay playwrights wittingly and unwittingly write their sexuality into their works. To be more specific, it discusses the inscription of same-sex desire in the plays by looking at the representations that occur in them, the sexual politics they espouse, and the language in which they are written. Finally, it explains why it is necessary to centralize the discourse of sexuality in reading the works of our gay playwrights.