In this paper the author has analysed the artistic manifestations of the ego-forming strategies of Sándor/Sarolta Vay (1859–1918), guided by the patterns of norm-following and norm-rejecting gender performativity and also by stepping outside of these patterns. Sándor Vay was born as a woman but lived as a man, constructing his writer ego as a male author as well. This construction could be one form of queer masculinity based on corporeality. The first part of this paper demonstrates Vay’s career; the second analyses Vay’s poems published under a female name and those published later under a male name, investigating the strategies of textual creation of sexuality and gender.
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