In the first, sociological part of the thesis, I deal with the understanding of (homo) sexuality through history. First, I draw out the essentialist and socio-constructivist understanding of homosexuality, and through them I present the thought of Michel Foucault, who through the thematization of the concepts of power and discourse offers a useful critique of essentialism and upgrades the socio-constructivist approach to understanding sexuality. As the last sociological theory, I introduce the theory queer, which continues with the topicization of power and discourse, and I also talk about the problem(s) of this theory.
In the second, literary-analytical part of the diploma thesis I then present two short story collections. The first collection, titled Družinske parabole (Family Parables) was written in 2005 by Gojmir Polajnar and the second one, titled Family Dancing (Družinski ples, 2006), was written in 1984 by David Leavitt. In a literary analysis and comparison of their short stories I concentrate on different narrative levels - intertextuality, ways of wording, type of narrator, focalization, language, style, motives and themes.
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