The Gay Enemy: Dictatorship and Dialogues of Human Rights Violation in Brazilian Contemporary Literature
Location
Bobo Room, Hodgin Hall, Third Floor
Start Date
8-11-2017 10:45 AM
End Date
8-11-2017 11:45 AM
Abstract
This presentation broaches Herbert Daniel’s novel Meu Corpo daria um romance (1984) and how it portrays gay public demonstration of affection as a means to resist state and social oppression against homosexuals during the Brazilian dictatorship. In this literary work, the scene of a public gay kiss generates a series of homophobic verbal attacks against the main character, Daniel, when he boards a bus in Copacabana in the middle of the night. He remembers the social oppression he faces within political resistances and in Brazilian society. Daniel stands his ground and in so doing, claims his right to be on this public space and he claims his rights as a gay man both in Brazil under the dictatorial regime and in the left-wing resistance. Using Manning’s idea (2009) that the gay body can be understood as a personal entity that should be utilized to claim a public and political space for LGBTTIQ+ groups, I argue that his claim to occupy public spaces as a gay man and the LGBTTIQ+ literary production were ways that sexual minorities could actively challenge cultural and state oppression and hence they could claim visibility, human rights, and equality in dictatorial Brazil (1964-85).
The Gay Enemy: Dictatorship and Dialogues of Human Rights Violation in Brazilian Contemporary Literature
Bobo Room, Hodgin Hall, Third Floor
This presentation broaches Herbert Daniel’s novel Meu Corpo daria um romance (1984) and how it portrays gay public demonstration of affection as a means to resist state and social oppression against homosexuals during the Brazilian dictatorship. In this literary work, the scene of a public gay kiss generates a series of homophobic verbal attacks against the main character, Daniel, when he boards a bus in Copacabana in the middle of the night. He remembers the social oppression he faces within political resistances and in Brazilian society. Daniel stands his ground and in so doing, claims his right to be on this public space and he claims his rights as a gay man both in Brazil under the dictatorial regime and in the left-wing resistance. Using Manning’s idea (2009) that the gay body can be understood as a personal entity that should be utilized to claim a public and political space for LGBTTIQ+ groups, I argue that his claim to occupy public spaces as a gay man and the LGBTTIQ+ literary production were ways that sexual minorities could actively challenge cultural and state oppression and hence they could claim visibility, human rights, and equality in dictatorial Brazil (1964-85).
