Other characters, other relationships

lesbian affectivities in Corpo desfeito, by Jarid Arraes

Abstract

In the 21st century, contemporary Brazilian literature, especially written by women, presents a diversity of representations and situations, with texts that provide a variety of readings about sexuality and the body, gender relations, physical and symbolic violence against minority groups, such as women, among other themes that were not mostly covered in literature from previous centuries, or even in what has become known as the canon. In this way, this work aims to scrutinize the issue of lesbian affectivity in a contemporary novel: Corpo desfeito (2022), by Jarid Arraes. In the narrative, the central character, a teenager, blossoms in her self-discovery through loving contact with another female character, breaking the historical heteronormative standards that permeate Brazilian society and the representations that come from literary canons. The theoretical assumptions of feminist criticism, such as Cixous (2022), Dalcastagnè (2012), Polesso (2018, 2020), Rago (2019), Wittig (2022) and Woolf (1985), will be used to analyze the novel.