„Nie nazywaj mnie pedałem” – homofobia i homohisteria w prozie Serhija Żadana

The aim of this paper is to present the homophobic and homohysteric discourse in Serhiy Zhadan’s prose. Adopting the perspective of the pro-feminist men and masculinities studies and researching the discourse on masculinity in Zhadan’s fiction enables the author to present men in the period of transformation of the last twenty-five years and show the gradual changes in the dominant attitude towards gays. Although it is difficult to treat Zhadan’s fiction as a full compendium of knowledge on the state of Ukrainian homophobia, the author claims that it contains images of masculinity and relationships between men that are accurate literary representations of the changes currently taking place in Ukraine. Keywords

The aim of this paper is to present the homophobic and homohysteric discourse in Serhiy Zhadan’s prose. Adopting the perspective of the pro-feminist men and masculinities studies and researching the discourse on masculinity in Zhadan’s fiction enables the author to present men in the period of transformation of the last twenty-five years and show the gradual changes in the dominant attitude towards gays. Although it is difficult to treat Zhadan’s fiction as a full compendium of knowledge on the state of Ukrainian homophobia, the author claims that it contains images of masculinity and relationships between men that are accurate literary representations of the changes currently taking place in Ukraine.