A (re)produção grotesca do inacabamento identitário da comunidade LGBTQIAP+ na série Sex Education

Abstract

The dialogue between art and life reveals how the extralinguistic social milieu finds in art an immediate response to the social formation (VOLÓCHINOV, 2019), thus creating intelligibility between these two worlds that complement each other. Accordingly, this paper aims, based on the theoretical and methodological postulates of Bakhtin (1993; 2011; 2015) and Volóchinov (2018; 2019), the transgressive perspective of Applied Linguistics (MOITA LOPES, 2006; PENNYCOOK, 2006), and studies on sexuality (BUTLER, 2018; LOURO, 2001), to seek to understand the process of sexual identity construction of fictional characters in the series Sex Education and how this reflects life-related contemporary aspects. To achieve our goal, therefore, we consider the journey of Eric Effiong, a black, effeminate teenager, son of Protestant parents, who has his sexual identity modified throughout the show's first season by direct interaction with the social environment. Given this, and from a qualitativeinterpretative study, we analyze, verbal-vocal-visually (PAULA, 2017), how verb-ideological forces (BAKHTIN, 2015) permeate concrete enunciations (BAKHTIN, 2011) taken from the scenes selected as the Corpus of analysis and how these forces influence the unfinished identity of socio-historical subjects materialized under the bias of grotesque attributes (BAKHTIN, 1993). The study findings show that hegemonic cultural intervention on bodies like Eric's prevents subversive practices of sexualities that do not respect traditional procedures as a consequence of a relentless attempt by centripetal forces to control identity performances outside heteronormative sexual standards. Moreover, by reproducing the identity unfinishedness of the LGBTQIAP+ community, the young man's body reflects and refracts the life world, thus receiving grotesque finishings expressing social views about his sexual orientation.