Neither man nor woman: Ana Luísa Amaral's queerful poetics

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2020

Authors

Freitas, Marinela (Author) FLUP

Journal

Title: Portuguese Studies

Vol. 36 No. 2

Pages: 220-236

ISSN: 0267-5315

Publisher: Modern Humanities Research Association

Other information

DOI: 10.5699/portstudies.36.2.0220

Abstract (EN): This article examines how the Portuguese poet Ana Luísa Amaral questions gendered assumptions embedded in language and explores new ways of articulating difference. In her work, two literary strategies are often explored to unsettle hierarchies regarding gender, sex and sexuality: the transvestism of the voice, when Amaral uses male voices to subvert the complex negotiations between male and female, self and other, reality and fiction; and the creation of queer identities, which the author explores to dismantle dichotomies and resist the violence of categorization. My contention is that, in Amaral's writings, the representation and articulation of different ways of being has a strong ethical and political component: calling others to challenge and resist monolithic identities by creating new spaces of freedom is at the basis of what the author calls a ‘queerful’ practice (and poetics).

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific