Gender at its limits: the erotic and the political in fictional Mexican and Brazilian 20th century texts

This dissertation analyzes the representation of the erotic and sexuality in works of Mexican and Brazilian fiction in the twentieth century. I examine how the erotic motif influences the construction of gender and sexuality. Erotic representations apart from the surface function of displaying what is aesthetically pleasing also have the possibility to transform or, at a minimum, disturb gender norms. By analyzing gender, my objective is to show how fluid gender identities are, and how the erotic motif can also have political implications by surfacing feminist and activist ideologies. Most importantly, however, by closely analyzing how the erotic has been mobilized in political terms, I am able to observe how radical authors have become in rewriting the female body and erotic desires. Some of the texts under analysis are Gabriela Cravo e Canela by Jorge Amado, Entre Villa y una mujer desnuda by Sabina Berman, Eu Tu Eles directed by Andrucha Waddington, among others