As representações da identidade da travesti na prosa de Cassandra Rios

Abstract

This Dissertation intended to analyze the representations of the identity of transvestites in the novels Georgette (1973) and Uma mulher diferente (2005), by Cassandra Rios. The research started from the need to understand the identities of transvestites in Cassandrian novels, as the author had built a literary project, between 1948 and 2000, that faced the cisheteropatriarchal, exclusionary and power system to give voice to subjects with dissident sexualities and overcome the marginalizations and stereotypes that mythologized this social group. Furthermore, academically, the study undertaken made a relevant contribution to the scientific community in the area of gender and sexuality studies, by focusing on the figure of the transvestite as a social being who occupies a place in society and urgently needs to be recognized as a citizen. As for the theoretical foundation, there are authors such as Benedetti (2004), who establishes a link between transvestites and prostitution, a view still present in common sense and in some Brazilian academies, Hall (2006) is referenced when talking about identity as something in constant transformation, constructed in a socio-interactionist way, Kulick (2008), in turn, addresses transvestite life in all its facets, bringing an ethnographic vision among other theorists who also contributed to this analysis. In turn, in addition to the bibliographical research regarding instruments and the qualitative approach, the hermeneutic method was used to analyze the social representations of transvestite characters in the narratives studied. Finally, from the results of the investigation it appears that the characters Ana Maria and Georgette, portrayed as attractive women, face rejection, prejudice and seek adaptation to the female body, revealing the hypocrisy of the time and the importance of the support network among transvestites, in addition Cassandra's literary project served as a confrontation to systems of power to make visible subjects who were voiceless and not represented at the time of its writing.