Exílio e Homossexualidade em Stella Manhattan de Silviano Santiago e El beso de la mujer araña de Manuel Puig

Right-wing military dictatorships in Latin America during the 1960s-80s governed the citizens of their respective countries by utilizing repressive means to control political opposition and enforce patriarchal values, including heteronormativity. Within that context, some Latin American novels present homosexuals that find supportive alternative places in which to discover and express themselves. This thesis examines two such novels, El beso de la mujer araña (1976) by Manuel Puig and Stella Manhattan (1985) by Silviano Santiago. I argue that the main characters Molina and Eduardo/Stella use the freedom of exile and interior exile (insílio) in order to develop their identities as homosexuals.PortugueseMastersUniversity of New Mexico. Dept. of Spanish and PortugueseMilleret, MargoLopéz, MiguelLopéz, Kimberl