Literature as drama: The visceral prose and impact of Morangos Mofados, by Caio Fernando Abreu.

• Grant number: 25/05306-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: July 01, 2025
• End date: December 31, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Literature - Brazilian Literature
• Principal Investigator: Cláudia Maria Ceneviva Nigro
• Grantee: Leonardo de Oliveira Fernandes
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências, Letras e Ciências Exatas (IBILCE). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de São José do Rio Preto. São José do Rio Preto , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This project aims to conduct a critical-analytical reading of the work Morangos Mofados (1982), by Caio Fernando Abreu, based on four short stories present in the work. They are: "Terça-feira Gorda", "Sargento García", "Aqueles Dois" and the homonymous and last short story "Morangos Mofados". The research has as its fundamental feature to observe and raise hypotheses, above all, regarding the intense and realistic way in which the author uses language to portray his time and to tell the stories present in the short stories, in addition to also highlighting and promoting reflections on themes present in the book such as homosexuality, homoeroticism, homophobia, the search for meaning and the historical context of conservatism in which the work was published, establishing relationships between these themes both in its context of production - the 1980s - and in the reverberations that still maintain today, in order to highlight the maintenance of the problems addressed by the book today. In addition to these issues, the project also aims to examine the prominence given by the author to non-normative identities in the short stories and the impact this had on his time and on Brazilian literature. Finally, it also aims to establish a literary comparison between the book Morangos Mofados and some works of current Brazilian literature that deal with the same themes, in order to highlight the recurrence and evolution of the themes addressed in Brazilian literature, starting from Caio's feat in his time. (AU)