BelAmi, or the Twink-Bildungsroman: Production of Subjectivities and Chronotopes in Gay Pornography

Abstract

Abstract

BelAmi is a gay porn studio renowned for its systematic work around the twink stereotype. However, company ties this image of youth to a time of sexual maturation that takes place in public and private spaces, thus composing a story nurtured by the bildungsroman tradition. I propose an exploratory approach to this narrative construction, based on a semiotic study that aims to reveal the artistic interpretation of a time and a space with incidences in the construction of subjectivities. Methodologically, Mikhail Bakhtin’s category of the chronotope collaborates with the provisional regularization of BelAmi’s productions, exposing generalizations about a conception of masculine education that reaffirms traditional models, through the regulated repetition of commonplaces such as the break with home, the forging of fraternities, and the demonstration of sexual resistance.

Keywords: BelAmi, gay pornography, chronotopes, bildungsroman, Mikhail Bakhtin