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Personal and collective trans-mythologies: creative attitudes to gender incongruence among transgender individuals

    Anna Maria Kłonkowska Affiliation
    ; Stephanie Bonvissuto Affiliation

Abstract

Embedded within the biographies of some transgender people are narratives elements more frequently found in culturally-specific legends settings and the interplay of mythological figures. Individuals who specifically identify as transsexuals (unlike other, non-binary or gender-queer transgender people) sometimes report the wish, the dream, and/or the desire to understand or alleviate their experienced gender incongruence in a surprisingly creative way: through some type of magical transformation. Calling upon recently collected interviews, this study examines those narratives and their use of such elements, noting their reliance on binary gender formations. Through philosophical and cultural-anthropological analyses, we suggest that these fields grant powerful and imaginative personal allowances, opportunities and perceptions to transsexual identifying transgender individuals – magical transformations and justified transpositions to alleviate dysphoria, a surrender of personal responsibility to unseen universal forces, and especially an inherent wisdom gifted during transitional liminality – that neither scientific nor academic evaluations of gender transition can. While these creative allowances are fictive, fantastical, and temporary, they nevertheless articulate a need if not an imperative for understanding, expression and ultimately action on behalf of the transitioning individual.

Article in English.


Asmeninės ir kolektyvinės transmitologijos: kūrybiniai požiūriai į lyties neatitikimą tarp translyčių asmenų

Santrauka

Naratyviniai elementai, vis dažniau aptinkami kultūriniu požiūriu specifinių legendų steigiamame fone ir sąveikaujant mitologinėms figūroms, yra įtraukti į kai kurių translyčių žmonių biografijas. Asmenys, kurie specifiniu būdu identifikuoja save kaip transseksualus (skirtingai nei kiti transseksualūs asmenys – nebinarinės lyties ar lytiniai keistuoliai), kartas nuo karto praneša apie norą, svajonę ir / ar troškimą suprasti ar sušvelninti jų patiriamą lytinį neatitikimą stebėtinai kūrybišku būdu – stebuklinga tam tikro pobūdžio transformacija. Remiantis neseniai surinktais interviu, šiame tyrime nagrinėjami tie naratyvai ir jų elementų naudojimas, atkreipiant dėmesį į jų priklausomybę nuo binarinių lyties struktūrų. Pasitelkiant filosofinius ir kultūrinius-antropologinius tyrimus, teigiama, kad šios sritys teikia paveikių ir kūrybiškų asmeninių išlygų, galimybių ir suvokimų individų, save identifikuojančių kaip translyčius, atžvilgiu: stebuklingos transformacijos ir pagrįsti perkėlimai, siekiant sušvelninti disforiją, asmens atsakomybės kapituliavimą universalių dvasinių jėgų akivaizdoje ir ypač prigimtinę išmintį, suteiktą pereinamojo liminalumo, o to neteikia nei moksliniai, nei akademiniai lyties keitimo vertinimai. Nors šios kūrybinės išlygos yra pramanytos, neįtikimos ir laikinos, vis dėlto jos artikuliuoja supratimo, išraiškos ir galiausiai jei ne imperatyvo, tai bent veiksmo pereinančiojo asmens atžvilgiu poreikį.

Reikšminiai žodžiai: kūrybinis požiūris, lyties neatitikimas, stebuklinga transformacija, perėjimo ritualas, translyčiai asmenys, transseksualūs asmenys, „netinkamo kūno“ diskursas.

Keyword : creative attitude, gender incongruence, magical transformation, rite of passage, transgender individuals, transsexual individuals, “wrong-body” discourse

How to Cite
Kłonkowska, A. M., & Bonvissuto, S. (2019). Personal and collective trans-mythologies: creative attitudes to gender incongruence among transgender individuals. Creativity Studies, 12(1), 61-74. https://doi.org/10.3846/cs.2019.5823
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