Death as social/sexual hygiene in Nelson Rodrigues' work: a reading of gender, sexuality and masculinities

Abstract

This article aims to revisit the short story “Delicado”, by the playwright and journalist Nelson Falcão Rodrigues (1994), present in the collection A vida como ela é..., the result of his work for the newspaper Última Hora, in order to discuss how the narration shows a compulsory heteronormative society that violates the existence of the protagonist outside the norm, to the point that he comes to cause his own death, not supporting external pressure to fulfill his 'role as a man'. Throughout the writing, we show how Eusebiozinho, the main character, when breaking with sexual binarism and social norm, is obliged to return to a supposed original / aprioristic place, mandatory masculinity, through compulsory heterosexuality, imposed by the family and represented by the figure of his uncle. For that, we used queer studies and texts by Adrienne Rich (2003), Judith Butler (2005), Monique Witting (1992), Teresa de Lauretis (1994), Robert Connell (1995) and Michael Foucault (2001), among others