Coleção Amores expressos: sexualidade na literatura contemporânea brasileira

Abstract

Through a multidisciplinary study, this research analyses the Amores Expressos collection, from the perspective of sexuality, more broadly, and gender, more specifically. The methodology used included reading, note-taking, research of other sources and various materials, such as magazines, comic books, films, and television shows, as well as literary texts to gather data. For the analysis, we focused on the history of sexuality, understanding the moments when social sexual thought was changing in Western societies. The chapter titled “Mulheres no divã” ponders over the reality of women in our midst, how the labor market is organized for them, the violence which permeates their daily lives, their sexuality, and the myths that help compose femininity. The chapter titled “Homens na berlinda” delves into how men are built in their own masculinity: Colonialism, war, and sports are social instances that project men who cannot show their emotions, and how they must be strong and virile. Next, the following chapter, “Todxs”, shows sex toys (dolls, religious statues, robots) and several other practices, such as sadomasochism, ménage à trois, anal sex, voyeurism, and pornography. The research answers the following questions: “can the sexuality portrayed in the collection deconstruct heterosexuality, or, rather, it reinforces it?” and “does the collection bring new aesthetics and behaviors about gay, lesbian, transexual, bisexual individuals? Or does it underpin the models socially built?”. We reach the conclusion that the collection Amores Expressos partially deconstructs heterosexuality, since although it features sexual minorities – women, homosexuals, transexuals – these characters still suffer violence, are raped or murdered at the end of the stories (We wonder if that could be seen as a sort of denunciation). On the other hand, it is possible to find positive aesthetics in relation to minorities: there is an account of a homosexual sex scene in which there is poetry (as opposed to disgust) and the fact that AIDS is not mentioned (A diseased once dubbed “Gay cancer”) must also be considered. It is possible to conclude, thus, that the collection Amores Expressos is centered around world cities and the view of the white heterosexual man is still ubiquitous.