The Rainbow of Senectus in Latin America: Configurations of LGBT Old Aged in Contemporary Brazilian Literature

Résumé

In the broader context of Latin American literatures, contemporary Brazilian literature has also foregrounded gender diversity and LGBT subjectivities, portraying lesbian, gay, transvestite, transgender, and other characters. In works published between 1975 and 2022, representations of old age show that literary texts do not follow a single aesthetic pattern when depicting sexually dissident characters. Lesbian characters, for example, are often portrayed superficially, with limited attention to their bodies, sex practices, desires, and affections, unlike gays, transvestites, and transgenders’ settings, whose old bodies are discussed with no sabotaging or diminishing treatment, especially in homoerotic representations. The discussion centers around a selection of nine short stories, within the given time of period, as a way of catalyzing the discussion that has taken place. This does not mean to say that the article analyzes the total number of short stories. The analytical categories of this literary cut are LGBT characters, old men, and erotic experiences. The debate focuses solely on the short story genre. Secco (1994), Benedetti (2005), Goldfarb (1998), and others are part of the theoretical field of old age.