"Lampião da esquina", um jornal alternativo do Brasil: iluminando identidade(s) e representação(ções) do(s) homossexual(is) de 1978-89

Abstract

The main objective of this work is to interpret the dispute for the construction of meanings and the discursive practices in the representations of the male homosexuals in the pages of the Lampião da Esquina newspaper between 1978 and 1981. In addition, we aimed at some more specific guidelines: to historicize the Lampião newspaper; to present the tensions involving the newspaper and its readers regarding the representation of homosexuals; to investigate how the journal contributed (or not) to the construction of homosexual identity (s); and finally to identify through the section Letters on the Table how Lampião's speech came to his readers and how they appropriated them. For this, we start with two questions: How did the discourses in the newspaper (dis) construct stereotypes and (re) constructed ideal types of homosexuals? Which representations appeared most in the journal: the masculinized homosexual or the effeminate? For theoretical reference, we adopt Michel Foucault's reflections on discourse analysis and Stuart Hall on the concept of representation. Methodologically, we start from historical contextualization and source selection. Next we analyze the sections of Lampião, mainly, the sections Corner, Opinion and Letters in the Table. Finally, we conducted a discourse analysis on the sections to follow the representation of male homosexuals. Of these representations we highlight those referring to the effeminacy and masculinity of homosexuals, because we seem to express the power relations between the subjects involved in the discursive production observed in the newspaper.