(First Love): comparative analysis of gay experience during the coming of age in Acıman and Tosun

Official URL: http://risc01.sabanciuniv.edu/record=b2313208? (Table of contents)

This thesis comparatively analyzes two authors who produce in English and Turkish, who are Andre Aciman and Yalçın Tosun, through a queer lens. The aim of the thesis is to “queer” homonormativity by focusing representations of the male same-sex desire existing in Call Me by Your Name by Aciman and selected short stories by Tosun, which is referred as “gay experience” as characters don’t necessarily identify as gay despite having same-sex encounters with other men. Thus, their sexualities are left blurred, meaning there is no clear self-expression of “gay identity”. Specifically, the thesis explores gay experiences of young men during coming-of-age periods, used to refer to the period of pre- or early period of young adulthood, adolescence, puberty or teenage periods. Drawing on theories on gender, sexuality and the Queer, the thesis compares the similarities and differences of gay experience presented by these two authors in relation to issues like class and ethnicity. By doing so, it aims to queer homonormativity, which idealizes a singular and conformist gay identity. Having the queer approach, the thesis brings together different particularities of gay experiences or expressions to challenge homonormativity as the production of normative codes. Underlying these particularities, the thesis tries to pose alternatives to the homonormativity and to contribute to a global identity, consisting of different expressions. Since both Aciman and Tosun narrate non-Western particularities, their works are functional to deconstruct the ideal White homonormativity. For, these non-Western experiences add up to the gay experience that is limited by this homonormativity