Nature and representation in Brazilian trans autobiographies (1972-2016)

• Grant number: 23/08613-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: April 01, 2024
• End date: February 28, 2027
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Literature - Comparative Literature
• Principal Investigator: Mário César Lugarinho
• Grantee: Caio Jade Puosso Cardoso Gouveia Costa
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This project aims to analyze the concepts of nature and representation as components for the discussions about identity categories in literary studies about trans autobiographies. For this, we will investigate four works: Memórias de Madame Satã, transcribed by Sylvan Paezzo, Bofes & Babados, by Vera Verão, by Jorge Laffond, Olhares de Claudia Wonder: crônicas e outras histórias, by Claudia Wonder, and Rogéria: uma mulher e mais um pouco, by Marcio Paschoal. We will evaluate to what extent these works can be called autobiographical, considering that two of them are not self-written, as well as reflect on the use and meanings of the trans terminology. With this, we intend to create a panorama of identity nomenclatures in the Brazilian context, between the years 1972 and 2016, in which these works are inserted. We will investigate how a certain Western notion of representation understands trans identities as fictions or falsities, that is, expressions of life that are impossible and socially unacceptable, but tolerated and even desired in theatrical contexts. We will reflect on how this route of interpretation expresses a binary structure that seems to be insufficient to analyze the complexity of such works. In contrast, we will propose a critical reading that maps and values the notion of nature, which we will find both in the selected autobiographies and in non-hegemonic cultural systems, and which differs from the notion of Western representation. Thus, we intend to evaluate how the selected trans autobiographies provoke collapses in canonical systems of representation and indicate the existence of logical systems of life that do not start from dichotomies and binarities to structure themselves.