Transgression, Identity, and the Semiotics of Space: Exploring Transgressive Sexuality in the novel Three by Drago Glamuzina

Abstract

The analysis of Drago Glamuzina’s novel Three (2023) sets Derrida’s and Bataille’s theoretical frameworks on transgression in critical contrast. From a Bataillean view, the erotic triangle that forms the thematic core of the novel functions as a ritual of transgression in which the gaze exposes vulnerability and dissolves autonomous subjectivity, ultimately reaffirming taboo. Derrida redirects attention to the instability of boundaries, which in the novel emerges through the portrayal of fluid relations among the main characters, relations that resist binary categorization and expose identity as inherently relational. A second key component of the analysis concerns the semantics of space (Patrick Califia, Nancy Duncan), as spatiality likewise functions as an unstable semiotic field structured by thresholds. The paper examines how the novel presents subjectivity, desire, and space as dynamic, continually deferred structures.