History Analysis / Tigana

Dianora and Baerd's relationship took place in the year after their province was conquered, and was founded mostly out of their shared grief for the loss of their province. Their father had been killed, their mother was emotionally gone, and Naddo had left just hours before--they were incredibly alone and ''only'' had each other. Their world had been turned on it's head and they were conomically, physically, and emotionally devastated, and stripped of their Tiganese pride. It was both SexForSolace, and a way of taking back something that brought them joy--and perhaps their ''right'' to joy at all. Also, because it's incest, to each other they are home, they are family. After their father was killed, and their mother fell into depression, this was a way to claim and cling to home and family when everything was trying to take it away.

The story plays with the idea that engaging in socially iffy sex can be a way for people to rebel and act out when they have no other way to do so. It's kind of a variant of SexIsLiberation. The two most prominent examples are Dianora and Baerd's relationship, and Alienor's sexuality.

Dianora and Baerd's relationship took place in the year after their province was conquered, and was founded mostly out of their shared grief for the loss of their province. Their father had been killed, their mother was emotionally gone, and Naddo had left just hours before--they were incredibly alone and ''only'' had each other. Their world had been turned on it's head and they were deeply wounded and stripped of their Tiganese pride. It was both SexForSolace, and a way of taking back something that brought them joy--and perhaps their ''right'' to joy at all. Also, because it's incest, to each other they are home, they are family. After their father was killed, and their mother fell into depression, this was a way to claim and cling to home and family when everything was trying to take it away.

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The story plays with the idea of the intersection of sex and oppression, and the idea that engaging in socially iffy sex can be a way for people to rebel when they have no other way to do so. It's kind of a variant of SexIsLiberation. The two most prominent examples are Dianora and Baerd's relationship and Alienor's sexuality.

Dianora and Baerd's relationship--which took place in the year after their province was conquered, and was founded mostly out of their shared grief for the loss of their province--was a way of taking back something that brought them joy, and perhaps their ''right'' to joy at all. Also, because it's incest, they are home, they are family. And after their father was killed, and their mother fell into depression, this was a way to claim and cling to home and family when everything was trying to take it away. This is clear when Dianora frames it not as something they are ''doing', but as something that has been done ''to them''.

->'''Pasithea''': [Y]ou would buy Corte's freedom, and Astibar's and Tregea's at the price of Tigana's name. Of our very existence in the world. At the cost of everything we ever had or were before Brandin came. At the price of vengeance and our pride.\\

{{Pride}} is a big theme in the book--in particular, choosing pride even when you know that pride will hurt you in the end.

* It was because of pride that Baerd shouted "Tigana! ''Tigana!'' TIGANA!" when he was 15, and got the shit beat out of him for it.
* It was because of pride that Catriana is aloof, even though it makes her lonely.

Dianora and Baerd's relationship--which took place in the year after their province was conquered, and was founded mostly out of their shared grief for the loss of their province--was a way of taking back something that brought them joy, and perhaps their ''right'' to joy at all. Also, because it's incest they're home, they're family. And after their father was killed, and their mother fell into depression, this was a way to claim and cling to home and family when everything was trying to take it away. This is clear when Dianora frames it not as something they are doing, but as something that has been done to them.

{{Pride}} is a big theme in the book--in particular, pride even when you know that pride will hurt you in the end.

->''The novelist Milan Kundera fed my emerging theme of oppression and survival with his musings about the relationship between conquered peoples and an unstable sexuality: what I have called "the insurrections of night." The underlying ideas, for me, had to do with how people rebel when they ''can't'' rebel, how we behave when the world has lost its bearings, how shattered self-respect can ripple through to the most intimate levels of our lives.''

-->'''Sandre''': I know that story too. That hoary, enfeebled excuse for Tiganese arrogance. Princes of Tigana! Not Dukes, oh no. ''Princes!'' Descended of the god!

!Pride

!Remembering

!Conquered peoples and an Unstable Sexuality

!!Pride

!!Remembering
->''What can a flame remember? If it remembers a little less than is necessary, it goes out; if it remembers a little more than is necessary, it goes out. If only it could teach us, while it burns, to remember correctly.''
-->-- Epigraph: George Seferis, “Stratis the Sailor Describes a Man”