Coming out : gatunek ponad granicami dyskursów

Abstract

Coming out, being both a linguistic phrase and a communicative event, has been transferred to the Polish language and culture from Western cultures during the last years of the previous century. In its canon form, it is a first-person declaration: I am gay/homosexual, lesbian, transsexual. The speech genre which coming out represents is situated in a complex generic configuration. The non-reductive depiction (not limited exclusively to sexual sphere) of queer people (regarded as not being sexually normative) allows for ranking coming out among the genres extending between the following discourses: private and public life, sexuality and identity, corporeality and spirituality, as well as nature and culture. The aim of the article is to illustrate how one genre realized in a specific textual manifestation, functions beyond the limits of discourses and cultures, adjusting to them, yet, maintaining its own generic properties.