Paris Cameron-Gardos | University of Amsterdam | Burning Desires: An Analysis of Gay Youth Coming Out Stories, Masculinity, and Violence in Film | Supervisor: Mireille Rosello | 2014-2018

My thesis will explore the ways in which different types of masculinities are constructed by different kinds of coming out stories in film. In particular, I wish to examine the links between violence, in all its forms and masculinities in these stories of sexual self-recognition. It is my intention to focus on the intersection between very specific constructions of masculinity and very specific types of coming out stories in the films Beautiful Thing (1996), Summer Storm (2004), North Sea Texas (2011), and Brotherhood (2009). I will study the elements of the coming stories that I contend both construct different masculinities and the different responses to those masculinities from the audience. I will direct my attention to films that have accompanied my own experiences, both when I came out and as I have grown up as a gay man. As such they are of particular interest to me. However, I do not intend to write an autobiographical thesis. I do not choose these films because they played a remarkable role during my formative years, but because they will help me question the idea of “the” coming out narrative in connection with the construction of certain kinds of masculinities and violence. Furthermore, it is my wish to demonstrate to those reading this dissertation that these stories of sexual self-identification and violence can be read by all.

Olga Krasa-Ryabets | University of Amsterdam | Secret Theatre: Off-the-grid Performance Practices in Communist Poland and Czechoslovakia (1945 – 1989) | Supervisors: Ellen Rutten, Kati Röttger

This study examines the home as a site of dissent, subversion and social change by way of theatrical performance. It investigates understudied instances of theatre/performative activity produced within private residencies in Poland and former Czechoslovakia between 1945 – 1989. In doing so it seeks to expand the concept of ‘dissent’ and present it as not only direct oppositional engagement with a regime but a process of cognitive distancing. To achieve this fuller picture of alternative culture, the project draws on several analytical approaches to explain the nature of personal identity formation and delve into the complex relationship between the home and the theatre. The study focuses on four locations: Warsaw, Brno, Prague and Teplice. Some of the materials used are recently published, as is the case with Miron Bialoszewski’s secret diaries, although careful consideration is given to unpublished sources (interviews) and materials published privately (e.g. Brno’s self-published ‘samizdat’). The analysis of primary sources within the appropriate cultural context maps a multi-faceted underground reality – one that challenges schematic representations of binarily opposed state and dissident cultures.The project does not conform to the view that dissent is exclusively defined as a politically motivated organized movement. Rather, the research supports Jonathan Bolton’s view that dissent is “a set of cultural practices” and examines how, through self-mythology and cognitive distancing, these practices provide an identity to those practicing.