Literature and society: an approach about the representation of homoaffectivity in short stories in the XXth century

Abstract

Brazilian literature, especially and throughout the twentieth century, has brought narratives that deal directly or in a veiled way the homoaffectivity. In short stories and in novels by different authors, homosexual characters are gaining ground in plots, decreasing its invisibility; however, the stories do not always give voice to the homosexual, presenting, by means of the narrator, homoaffective experiences and portraying a space reserved in society to those who do not answer the sexual pattern set both in conservative and patriarchal contexts. Thus, this study analyzes short Brazilian narratives produced in the twentieth century which deal with homosexuality, allowing recognizing the relationship between the configuration of homoaffective character and the social conditionings. The purpose is to identify the profile of homosexual characters in Brazilian short stories and their presence and participation in the plots of the stories. Also, one of the goals here is to discuss whether there is or there is not, in such narratives, a direct or an indirect association between homoaffectivity, homophobia, and social exclusion. To develop this proposal, short stories published in the twentieth century by different authors were taken into account. Departing from the queer theory, this work highlights that there is a close relationship between sexual repression and homophobia and the so-called literary representation of homoaffectivity and that there are at least three thematic trends in the short stories with deals with homosexuality.