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Devotees of Dionysus: Queer Culture in the United States
Plessas, J. (2003). Devotees of Dionysus: Queer Culture in the United
States (Doctoral dissertation, Pacifica Graduate Institute, 2003). Devotees of Dionysus: Queer Culture in the United States is
a production-style dissertation exploring the mythic, ritualistic,
and psychological qualities of the Dionysian archetype as they relate to
modern-day queer men. Many queer men have been exploring their history
and their mythology in search of an understanding and a purpose for
their difference. I am arguing that for queer men, the Dionysian
archetype and mythology provide the best model for understanding the
homosexual lifestyle and consciousness. For queer men already,
consciously and unconsciously, have played with this energy as being an
“other,” apart from the a larger heterosexual world; have displayed
acts of revolution and liberation from confines of heterosexuality;
have been involved in drama, drag, and camp; and have been linked to
the process of death and dying confronting teen-age suicide and the HIV
pandemic. This dissertation uncovers the shadow and light-side
contributions that queer men make in the world, wielding the energies
of the Dionysian archetype as an expression of queer soul. Dionysian
qualities such as liberation, revolution, excess, ecstasy, dance, sex,
orgy, drunkenness, drugs, drama, drag, death, and dismemberment all
account for the life experiences of many of its devotees. Devotees of
Dionysus bring to light the qualities and nature of queer soul, not
only for the queer community but for the larger heterosexual community
as well. Following this historical, mythological, and archetypal
exploration into the Dionysian archetype will be an archetypal play
called A Twist of Hair, which parallels and illustrates the Dionysian,
in relation to queer life. Inspired by Euripides’ The Bacchae, A Twist
of Hair not only provides an example of the archetype but, once
performed, becomes a ritual in honor of the god and his queer devotees.
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