Banca de DEFESA: MARIANA SOUZA PAIM

SEXUAL TERROR: GENDER AND SEXUALITY IN CASSANDRA RIOS’S NARRATIVES (1950-1980)

Cassandra Rios; Sexual Terror; Gender; Sexuality.

This dissertation aims at discussing scenes woven around dissident gender and sexuality in three narratives penned by the writer Cassandra Rios. Having as a starting point the reading of the following novels: Georgette (195-), A noite tem mais luzes (196-) and Eu sou uma lésbica (2006 [1980]); her autobiographies: Censura: minha luta, meu amor (1977) and Mezamarro, Flores e Cassis: o pecado de Cassandra (2000); as well as various archival materials, including: interviews, journalistic articles and censorship reports issued about her work, I seek to situate the author's literary production vis-à-vis some debates and the sociocultural context
of her time. The critical gesture outlined here holds a commitment with the potential of connection and dialogue between the narratives of Cassandra Rios and other literary productions that were in circulation at the same time or that are located in a more contemporary context, foregrounding mainly those that are forged within the theoretical framework whose perspectives varies from feminisms, lesbian feminism, transfeminism and queer theory. Therefore, I intend to offer some possibilities of reading/entry into Cassandrian texts which, through the approach of complexities and contra-dictions engendered in some of her scenes, point to the elaboration of an enunciative space and literary engagement that displace the dominant epistemologies based on hetero-cis-normativity and terrorize the hegemonic language by articulating its own knowledge around gender and sexuality.