Mellan stolthet och fördom
Om homosexualitetsdiskurser i biblioteks- och informationsvetenskapliga examensarbeten
Through discourse analysis of twelve Library and Information Science theses, covering the period between 1975 and 2007, this thesis examines representations of homosexuality and homosexual identities. By using queer theory as a point of reference aspects such as essence/construct, equality/difference, notions of gender and views on the historical and contemporary situation of homosexuals are brought to the fore in the analysis. It is shown how the material unequivocally posits the contemporary situation of homosexuals favourably in comparison to a past signified by prejudices and oppression. This can be seen as an implicit essentialism in the texts, though ambivalences open up the possibility that it in some cases may be only strategically used while explicitly adhering to constructionist views. In linking concepts of a homosexual difference to prejudices, frequently involving notions of inverted gender performances or sexual ?extremes?, the discourse of progression posits normalcy and assimilation as positive values. At the same time the texts criticize an exclusionary heterosexuality (in the texts written after 2000 referred to as ?heteronormativity?), a concept that, apart from its function as object of critique, in some texts allows for a non-essentialist understanding of homosexuality as a position relative a structure of power. By showing how these texts can be seen as both drawing on and questioning received notions of identity and sexuality, this thesis hopes to stimulate further critical analyses of the relation between LIS and identitystructuring power in the broadest sense.