Homosexual Themes In Chinese And American Literature And Movie In The 1990s

Since the 1950s, as the study on homosexuality becoming nothing unusual and homosexuality not being categorized as disease, the attitude towards homosexuality became more rational and friendly, and works focused on homosexuality emerged in great amount and burgeoning homosexual literature gained recognition in academic field.Among the complete history of homosexual literature, the 1990s was an indispensable period when not only lots of important works emerged in western countries but also such kind of subject gained rapid attention in China. The breakout and upsurge of homosexual liberation movement in the 1960s established the United States as the main camp of homosexual literary creation. As the development of China's reform and opening policy, academic communications between countries became more and more frequent. Western countries, particularly the United States exerted great influence upon China's homosexual literary creation, thus there existed many similarities between them and the United States became an important factor in studying Chinese homosexual literature in the 1990s. In addition, synchronism between literature and movie was a distinctive feature in that period, therefore, the role played by movie was unavoidable when offering a comparatively complete summarization of the homosexual themes in literature.In western countries, studies on homosexual literature started earlier, and many institutes, journals, and websites committed to the studies on homosexual literature were established. While in China, on account of various reasons, study on homosexual literature is still in its beginning stage and both the content and the depth of it require more development. Through the comparatively comprehensive summarization of homosexual literature and movie and analyses of specific works during this period both in China and the United States, this thesis explores the uniqueness of the themess of homosexual literature in this period.Generally, the thesis consists of two parts. Chapter One is the first part, introducing the studying history of homosexual literature and the Queer Theory which serves as the theoretical foundation of the homosexual literature in the 1990s. In addition, this part summarizes the evolution of homosexual subjects in literature and movies, particularly in the 1990s.The second part includes Chapter Two, Chapter Three , which discusses the characteristics of homosexual themes relating to certain works of literature or movie both in China and the United States in the 1990s. Starting from the social background of the study and creation of homosexual themes and in combination with the Queer Theory, this thesis identifies the following characteristics through the in-depth study of homosexual works in this period:1. Obvious features of that age---concern on AIDS;2. Distinct perspective of feminism;3. Deep concern on the "coming out of the closet" of the homosexuals;4. Creation of directors and writers who are homosexuals themselves which presents different understanding from common writers and directors due to their unique life experiences and perspectives of aesthetic judgment;5. Innovation and Development in respect of the characterization of homosexuals, including the creation of bisexuals and teenager homosexuals and the increase of women homosexuals.From the above-mentioned characteristics, we can conclude that the 1990s was not only a period when great amount of homosexual works emerged, but also a period when the themes of homosexual works became more and more profound.