Lusosex: Gender and Sexuality in the Portuguese-Speaking World - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0816639213 ISBN 13: 9780816639212

Publisher: Univ Of Minnesota Press, 2002

Synopsis

Some of the most compelling theoretical debates in the humanities today center on representations of sexuality. This volume is the first to focus on the topic -- in particular, the connections between nationhood, sex, and gender -- in the Lusophone, or Portuguese-speaking, world. Written by prominent scholars in Brazilian, Portuguese, and Lusophone African literary and cultural studies, the essays range across multiple discourses and cultural expressions, historical periods and theoretical approaches to offer a uniquely comprehensive perspective on the issues of sex and sexuality in the literature and culture of the Portuguese-speaking world that extends from Portugal to Brazil to Angola, Cape Verde, and Mozambique.

Through the critical lenses of gay and lesbian studies, queer theory, postcolonial studies, feminist theory, and postmodern theory, the authors consider the work of such influential literary figures as Clarice Lispector and Silviano Santiago. An important aspect of the volume is the publication of a newly discovered-and explicitly homoerotic -- poem by Fernando Pessoa, published here for the first time in the original Portuguese and in English translation. Chapters take up questions of queer performativity and activism, female subjectivity and erotic desire, the sexual customs of indigenous versus European Brazilians, and the impact of popular music (as represented by Caetano Veloso and others) on interpretations of gender and sexuality. Challenging static notions of sexualities within the Portuguese-speaking world, these essays expand our understanding of the multiplicity of differences and marginalized subjectivities that fall under the intersections of sexuality,gender, and race.

About this title

About the Author

Quinlan is associate professor of Portuguese and women's studies at the University of Georgia.

Arenas is associate professor of Portuguese studies at the University of Minnesota.

Edition details

• Publisher: Univ Of Minnesota Press
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0816639213
• ISBN 13: 9780816639212
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 360
• Editor: Susan Canty Quinlan, Fernando Arenas