I may as well start out the new year by once more dilating on one of the topics crucial to my literary theory: the Bataillean idea that all art is defined by transgression. My focus in this essay and the one following is a specific type of transgression, which I've dubbed "clansgression," in that it deals with individuals crossing boundaries that are either literally or figuratively akin to those of familial relations.
With one obvious exception, most clansgressions involve interactions between persons of disparate ages. One John Money is credited in this Wiki article with inventing the term "chronophilia" to denote paraphilias in which a given subject showed a penchant for persons within a particular age range. The article shows how chronophilia breaks down into other categories, but the only two I will be referencing in the upcoming essay are "hebephilia," denoting a penchant for early adolescents, generally from ages 11-14, and "ephebophilia," denoting a penchant for late adolescents, which Wiki allots to ages 15-19 (though I personally have seen cases where even characters in their early 20s are given the semblance of "ephebes." However, it's apparent that the "ephebe type" doesn't last too much longer as age advances, at which point one sees at least the late twenty-year-old as being as "mature" as any other adult.
I said I'd reference these terms, but I don't plan to USE them, because they don't adapt well to noun-form. Thus, in the "Three Forms" essay I'll employ these noun-forms:
H-TYPE= a fictional character who is, or appears to be, within the span of the early adolescent
E-TYPE= a fictional character who is, or appears to be, within the span of the late adolescent
M-TYPE= a fictional character who is, or appears to be, within the span of the mature adult
Further subgroups are possible, but for the time being these will suffice.
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