Homometrías : representaciones de deseo homosexual en la literatura del Siglo de Oro español

Homometries : Representations of Homosexual Desire in Spanish Golden Age Literature traces literary representations of homosexuality during this period. Traditional criticism is written from a perspective that reflects the heteronormative idiosyncrasy that permeates this literature. In my study, I interpret the authors' textual imaginings and how they manipulate hegemonic ideals of identity and sexuality to highlight overt or encoded attempts to subvert the concept of transhistorical heterosexuality. My study valorizes "anachronistic" queer literature. It differs from those in the 1990s by averting from the consideration of homosexuality as a recent "invention". I revisit Spanish Golden Age texts to illustrate how human relations in this era can provide the spaces where alternative sexual identities can take hold. I propose five imperatives, one, it is necessary to admit that these texts incorporate not only hegemonic ideals but all the intensities of human desire; two, when these intensities have to do with homosexuality they are registered in three levels: codified, embedded in a homophobic concept, or silenced; three, when the codification appears in a positive context it can be identified through the rhetoric of homoeroticism or masculine love (homosociality would be the asexual variation and feminine love its lesbian counterpart); four, homophobia can be recognized in condemnatory, moralistic, or mockery situations; and five, the language of the closet exists in textual suggestions, in what is not pronounced but can be identified. Each chapter deals with and elaborates on each of these imperatives, with Chapter 1 acting as the theoretical platform. Chapter 2 focuses on homoeroticism through the poetry of don Juan de Arguijo. Chapter 3 studies a feminine man in the episode of Leandra and Vicente in Don Quijote, here, I propose the term, "homoscapes" (homo-relieves) as the identifiable characteristics of hegemonic gender transgressions. In Chapter 4, I revise Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick's homosociality to show how homosexual relationships between men could have been maintained in La boda entre dos maridos, a Lope de Vega play. Chapter 5 analyzes homophobia and its representations in Celos con celos se curan, a play by Tirso de Molina. And, Chapter 6 deals with the interpretation of the language of the closet in El castillo de Lindabridis, a play by Calderón de la Barca.