Representations of Gay Men in Contemporary Spanish Cinema

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to offer a diverse perspective on the representation and conceptualisation of male homosexuality in Spanish cinema over the past twenty years. Key questions considered include: how is male homosexuality represented on screen? With what particularities and ideological inflections has Spanish cinema categorised gay male characters? What is included and excluded in such representations? What do these representations say about Spanish society? Also, how are those representations related to the past – and, possibly, the future?

National cinema is invariably shaped by, and in turn shapes, the social, political, and legal contexts in which it is forged, and Spain’s cinematic traditions are no exception. The aim of this thesis is to explore the interrelationships between Spanish film conventions and changing legal, discursive, and visual frameworks. The thesis explores the interrelationships between these frameworks and focuses on three thematic areas: Space, Body, and Family.

In Queer Spaces I analyse the representation of Madrid’s gay district Chueca in Spanish cinema over the last two decades, and how it has evolved from an underground and liminal area of jouissance in the 1980s and early 1990s to a commercialised and globalised ‘village’ in the 2000s. I also examine how films subvert those binary oppositions often associated with space, such as hetero/homo, local/global or private/public. Gay Male Bodies focuses on the medicalisation of the male gay body and the discourse of homosexuality as ‘the other:’ I discuss how discourses that originated in Spain during Franco’s regime can still be seen in some contemporary films, and what this means for the progressive representation of male homosexuality on screen. The final section, Same-Sex Families, questions the notion of ‘family’ and ‘family values’ in regard to gay characters, and I consider key issues in contemporary GLBT politics, including gay marriage, gay families, gay adoption and the relationships between gay and heterosexual family members.