Da “literatura de urgência” às narrativas indetectáveis: representações sobre HIV/aids no Brasil

Abstract

This dissertation analyzes the presence of HIV/AIDS as a theme in Brazilian narratives. Through an extensive bibliographic review, it investigates how marginalized groups have been represented in works that address the subject—particularly through the ways in which female characters, Black individuals, homosexuals, and other subjects appear in the narratives of various authors who, in some way, have explored this theme in national literary productions since the emergence of the epidemic at the end of the last century. The theoretical framework includes key contributions from Susan Sontag (1989), with her reflections on the metaphors generated in and by discourses about the epidemic; Sejo Carrascosa (2022) and the devaluation of bodies through the lens of hegemonic masculinity; Eduardo Jardim (2019), with his overview of the epidemic; Italo Moriconi (2014; 2020) and Marcelo Secron Bessa (1997; 2002), with their essential discussions on literature that addresses HIV/AIDS; Larissa Pelúcio and Richard Miskolci (2009), in the debate on the re-pathologization of dissident sexualities; Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (2010) and Regina Dalcastagnè (2012), with their reflections on the discursive and literary production of marginalized groups and their cultural value; Cristian Alberti (2020), with his concept of “virico-hegemonic discursivity”; and Alexandre de Nunes de Sousa (2016), with his contributions on how literature began to address HIV/AIDS following the advent of antiretroviral medications. The dissertation examines the representation (Hall, 2016) of the virus and the disease, considering discourses and imagery from both biomedical and behavioral spheres, in order to explore the intersections between these domains and their literary representations. A close relationship can be observed between the social representations of the virus and the disease and the ways in which the analyzed works address them—whether to challenge stereotypes or, at times, to reinforce them.