EXPLORING HOMOSOCIAL DESIRES IN HANYA YANAGIHARA’S A LITTLE LIFE

Abstract

This research study aims to analyze Hanya Yanagihara’s novel A Little Life focusing on the male-to-male homosocial relationships and desires of the focal male characters in relations to the protagonist, Jude St. Francis, in terms of their influences and contributions to the protagonist’s representation, identity and personality in a variety of contexts. The research study illustrates that the homosocial and homosexual desires Jude expressed, either hostile or affection, were mainly stimulated and influenced by his past childhood experiences, his psychological condition and trauma at different times in his life, his libido and affections from other men from his childhood up until his death. The analysis has also shed some light on the political processes of marginalization and hierarchization that are mainly constructed through the incorporation of a man to subordinate another man or boy at the individualistic level consisting of sexual objectification, verbal abuse and corporal violence. The research analysis of the influences of the homosocial relationships between Jude St. Francis and the other focal characters yields an illustration of a life of Jude whose identity, sexuality, mentality, self-representation and homosexual and homosocial desires with other focal men did not accidentally and randomly occur but were influenced by the contributions of the intimacy with these characters since Jude’s childhood up until his death.

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