The Poetics of Sorrow: Poetry and Imagined Queer Communities in Thai Gay Magazines (1984-1987)

Abstract

        This article gathers and analyzes twenty poems published in three Thai gay magazines––Neon, Gaysorn Prasopkan, and Mithuna Junior––between 1984 and 1987. I study these poems as “queer poetry” due to their portrayals of nonnormative sexualities and homosexual desire, with a focus on their role in imagining and constructing queer communities. This sense of community, I propose, is primarily constructed through the interactive and dialogic characteristics of gay magazines. Serving as affective networks, these magazines enable the expression and exchange of sensory and emotional experiences among queer communities. Consequently, they also function as queer archives through which the processes of documentation, preservation, and transmission of queer history take place.

          My analysis of the selected poems emphasizes the significance of melancholic feelings in two interrelated aspects. First, melancholia reflects a shared experience of gender discrimination among gay individuals. The poetic configuration of melancholic queers in these poems can be interpreted as evidence of pervasive homophobia and as a critique of heteronormativity. Second, melancholia provides a lens to contemplate queer sexuality and desire, particularly in relation to Buddhist concepts of illusoriness and impermanence. These religious elements inadvertently serve to intensify sexual desire and convey queer existential vulnerability. In this context, melancholia undergirds the queer communities as it is mobilized to counter mainstream discourses and as an emotional refuge for queer individuals during this period.