Self-Reflexive Screenwriting and LGBT Identity: Framing and Indirectly Reading the Self

Abstract

In the 1995 documentary The Celluloid Closet, based on Vito Russo’s celebrated book of the same name, Richard Dyer tells us:

Most expressions of homosexuality in most of movies are indirect. And what is interesting about that, is that it is of course what it was like to express homosexuality in life. That we could only express ourselves indirectly, just as people on the screen could express themselves indirectly. And the sense that the characters on the screen are in the closet, the movie is in the closet, and we are in the closet.

Dyer illuminates the key context of screen representation for LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) identity: that historically, overt expression has been denied, and this offers impact not only on senses of self but also the witnessing of the self, which is potentially a covert experience. Despite this, screenwriters have involved themselves in the process of self-representation, evident in their screenplays and cultural disseminations. They are involved in speaking to mainstream audiences about the context of their identity and, in the case of gay and lesbian identity, this involves a personal intimate subjectivity, presented to a public world. Whilst Dyer attests that historically Hollywood has offered an indirect relationship to gay and lesbian identity, increasingly more direct routes are offered, relating advocacy, affirmation and social inclusion.