Words of becoming: on writing, difference and subjectivity in biographies and autobiographies of transgender people in the United States

• Grant number: 18/25589-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Effective date (Start): May 01, 2019
• Effective date (End): March 31, 2020
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Anthropology
• Principal Investigator: Silvana de Souza Nascimento
• Grantee: Luiza Ferreira Lima
• Supervisor: Heather Love
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Research place: University of Pennsylvania, United States
• Associated to the scholarship: 16/23516-0 - Transits in text: a comparative analysis of biographies and autobiographies of trans people in Brazil and in the United States of America, BP.DR

Abstract

This project intends to investigate subjectification processes produced in and through writing in biographies and autobiographies composed or coordinated by transgender people in the United States. As part of my main broader research carried out in Brazil, my goal is to focus, through documental research (having as principal materials American publications of the genre, as well as historical sources, newspaper articles and documentaries about said publications and their authors) and interviews with authors, on the ways these publications, during the history of this literary field in the United States, design possibilities of existence, reproduce and/or destabilize gender conventions, respond to specific sociopolitical contexts and reorganize power relations.