Juan Bernier and Dinos Jristianópulos: Confessional Literature between Sin and Redemption

Abstract

Despite the circumstances that separate both authors, the works of the Spanish author Juan Bernier and the Greek poet Dinos Jristianópulos share several aspects that are highlighted here. They are examples of confessional literature with which their authors —both homosexuals and believers— try to overcome the contradiction that arises from the clash between their sexuality and the adverse circumstances that surround it. This leads to a confrontation without which it is not possible to understand their respective literary creations. After reading the complete works of Bernier (mainly his Diary) and Jristianópulos (his poetic work), I compare them and establish affinities and differences between them and the lives of the authors. I point out the confessional nature of the works and highlight the differences and similarities in each case regarding the same issues: homosexuality, sex and love, religion and morality, as well as inclusion in society and the political-social commitment of the writer. Although both works respond to the same desire to confess a privacy censored by the Christian-rooted morality that governs the societies in which the two poets live, the results differ: for Bernier, it is a relief and a consolation; for Jristianópulos, a redemption. Both resort to confession to free themselves from sin and to overcome the vice-virtue duality that torment their lives.