Identidade e alteridade em A confissão de Lúcio de Mario de Sá- Carneiro

Abstract

The double in literature allows the reconfiguration, for the reader, of the interaction between the Self and the Other, between the known and unknown, and between the same and the different. In the novella A Confissão de Lúcio (CL) it is not otherwise; the double pushes the limits of identity and otherness, especially regarding gender. Although this is, in our opinion, the central element of the novel, only very recently the relationship between CL and Queer identity began to be investigated more systematically. However, Queer research about CL has neglected to reflect, among other things, about otherness and the duplicity of the gaze towards the Other in the narrative. Trying to fill that gap, nevertheless without being limited to it, in this thesis we explore the double as a metaphor for identity and otherness in three instances: in the relationship between the reader and the novella (Chapter 1), and in the representation of interpersonal (Chapter 2) and intrapersonal (Chapter 3) character relationships. We discovered that the "hesitant duplicity" or "the selfas- another" which is a feature of the double in fantastic literature, is repeated at various levels throughout the reading of the book. Dual is the identity of the reader during the act of reading, as well as the text itself as it states and at the same time denies what is narrated. Dual is also the intradiegetic exchange of gazes between the Self and the Other, or more precisely between the two protagonists. Lúcio and Ricardo deny while secretly acknowledge in the Other what they sometimes reject and sometimes accept in themselves: their bisexuality. Finally, we note that the gaze towards themselves is divided between self-alienation and self-knowledge. The cause of these conflicts in intra and interpersonal intradiegetic gazes is a politics of heterosexist oppression that works subtly, leading both Lúcio and Ricardo to endure the consequences of an internalized homophobia.