| June belongs to homosexuals around the whole world, and is called “Pride Month” for in this month various celebrating activities will be held, and the gay pride parade in the last weekend of June makes the festive atmosphere climb its climax. Because of its large scale, numerous participants, long history, and influences, San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration is one of the most representative and typical gay parades in the world. This paper will take San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration as a study subject to analyze its four functions—commemoration, carnival, protest and advocation, and lead to the conclusion that San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration is multifunctional.Queer theory and Carnivalesque theory give the theoretical guide to chapter 2, 3 and 4 of this thesis. Queer theory believes sexuality is formed through social and cultural process, and uses discourse analysis and gender studies to analyze and deconstruct gender, identity, and power. Carnivalesque theory will be applied to analyze the carnivalistic features of San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration.Case study and close reading will be applied to analyze the San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration, the dressing and behaviors of paraders, paradoxical audiences, and businessmen would be closely read.This dissertation have 5 parts. In the first part of the article, the commemorating function of San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration would be proved in where it is originated—the “Stonewall Riots”. And this function is reinforced constantly in every year's parade for “Stonewall” elements are everywhere.For the second part, under the guidance of Bakhtin's Carnivalesque theory the organizers, paraders' careful preparations and exciting performances, thrilled audiences from all over the world, businessmen seizing “pink economy” and the joyful atmosphere will all be used to illustrate that San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration is a joint a carnival for both homosexuals and heterosexuals.The natural attribute of a parade is to protest, San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration is no exception, so in the third part, the idea that parader and audiences' various slogans, fantastic performances all expressed their requirements and their protests against all kinds of inequalities would be stated clearly. And by the coverage of mainstream media in times can we see the changing of stresses of the protests.In the fourth part, queer theory would be borrowed to analyze the existing gender confusions, and specific examples will be taken from the celebrations to explain that through the display of the normal lives of sexual minorities the advocation of LGBT knowledge would be done.In the last part, the conclusion that San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration is multifunctional will be drawn again. |
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