ABSTRACT
Chapter Three continues to be powered by the metaphor of a rebellious copyist and revisits the previously discussed related narrative devices, examining two remarkably similar novels: Juan Goytisolo’s A Cock-Eyed Comedy (Carajicomedia) and Eduardo Mendicutti’s Yo no tengo la culpa de haber nacido tan sexy [I’m Not to Blame for Having Been Born So Sexy]. The argument focuses on the ironic attitude of both writers to the celebrated Spanish Golden Age and investigates their subversive queer appropriation of religious discourse pervasive in Spanish culture. Goytisolo’s novel is shown to launch an explicit textual attack on the homophobia of the Catholic Church by rewriting the work of Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer (the founder of Opus Dei) in the context of gay sex. Mendicutti’s novel is conceived as a queer manifesto which dismantles rigid gender and sexual binaries inscribed in the heterosexual matrix. Highlighting the importance of post-Stonewall camp for the subversive force of both novels, the chapter also analyses their self-ironic depictions of modern, globalised and commercialised gay culture.
