The vertex of the triangle: Dom Casmurro, gender and sexuality during brazilian fin-de-siècle

Abstract

Based on a Queer theoretical approach, this article explores transformations on gender and sexual relations in Brazilian society at the end of XIX century. This work associates a sociological analysis of the love triangle in the novel Dom Casmurro to a historical reconstitution of the period, as a way to give elements to a non-heteronormative comprehension of Brazilian social history. The focus on Machado de Assis´s most famous work allows exploring the fear and the violent refusal of any transgression of the gender and sexual order. The triangle's vertex is always an Other and even if we identify s/he with a character, it is only the symbol of what that time and society rejected as a danger for the current structure of love and power relations.

Dom Casmurro; Love Triangle; Compulsory Heterosexuality; Homophobia; Heteronormativity; Queer Theory