Open Collections

The role of literature in Fernando Molano’s trilogy : how triple social rejection (poverty, homosexuality and HIV/AIDS) affects the marginalized gay writer

University of British Columbia

The literary work of Fernando Molano Vargas was the result of creativity and talent conceived under discriminatory circumstances surrounding poverty, homosexuality, and HIV/AIDS. This thesis asks what drives a person like Molano, who is triply marginalized, to dedicate himself to writing? I argue that Molano, an openly homosexual author, makes of literature his personal instrument of salvation: a matter of life and death. The present work is the first sustained analysis, at least in English, devoted to Molano’s trilogy, guided by theoretical approaches in queer theory such as those of Lee Edelman’s Homographesis (2016) and No Future (2004), and Kathryn Stockton’s The Queer Child (2009). This thesis is divided into three chapters. The first is on the novel Un beso de Dick (1992) and deals with themes of homosexual desire, love, life, and death. I evaluate Molano’s exploration of homosexuality in relation to the naive adolescent’s first love, sexuality, and the homoerotic desire within the masculine environments of sports, where gay men are usually forced to hide their sexuality to avoid homophobia. The second chapter is on the posthumously published novel Vista desde una acera (2012), where I consider themes of poverty, relationships, discrimination, and HIV/AIDS. Here, I interpret Molano’s personal experiences with poverty, gender roles, and traditional family values. I contend that Molano sees in literature an opportunity to process and reflect upon his childhood traumas. The third chapter is on Todas mis cosas en tus bolsillos (1997), Molano’s book of poetry. Here, I explore Molano’s development of love, sexual pleasure, BDSM, homoeroticism, and homosexual relationships and point out how Molano’s poetic voice changes, highlighting a defining characteristic of his poetry—defiance —where intimate life details are shared. The narrator is a voyeuristic, sexually active rebel and literary connoisseur, who aims to capture the attention of a curious reader.

Text

2019-08-14

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/71284

Hispanic Studies

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/