Efetuação dos direitos humanos aos sujeitos queer: a crítica de Judith Butler aplicada a análise literária

Abstract

In recent decades, debates on gender identities and sexual diversity have gained increasing prominence in the fields of philosophy, law, and the human sciences. This movement reflects profound social transformations that challenge traditional models of normativity that have historically structured understandings of the subject, the family, and citizenship. In this context, contemporary theories of gender performativity, particularly those developed by Judith Butler (2010; 2013; 2019; 2020; 2021; 2023), provide relevant conceptual tools for understanding how identities are socially produced, regulated, and, at the same time, potentially subverted. This dissertation is situated within this critical framework and investigates the relationships between Queer theory, legal normativity, and the recognition of dissident subjectivities, articulating philosophical reflection, literary analysis, and legal discussion. Its central motivation lies in the observation that, although significant reconfigurations have taken place in the field of civil rights and legal protection of Queer individuals in different countries, structural tensions persist between the formal recognition of these identities and the maintenance of social and institutional norms grounded in heteronormativity and gender binarism. Thus, the research problem guiding this study asks: in what ways do gender performativity theory and the contributions of Queer theory enable a critical understanding of the limitations and possibilities of legal recognition of Queer identities within contemporary normative systems? In response, the dissertation aims to analyze the relationships between Queer theory, legal normativity, and citizenship, seeking to understand how legal and cultural structures simultaneously regulate and enable the recognition of Queer subjects. The study examines the contribution of performativity to the critique of legal gender categories; analyzes law as both an instrument of exclusion and protection; and explores the tension between legal recognition and the persistence of heteronormative standards. Methodologically, the research adopts a qualitative and interdisciplinary approach, combining bibliographic research, philosophical analysis, legalcritical examination, and literary interpretation. The theoretical framework engages authors such as Michel Foucault (2022), Joan Riviere (2005), Gayle Rubin (2003; 2016), Julia Kristeva (2024), and Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1915; 1978). In the literary domain, the analysis of O Arroz de Palma (Azevedo, 2011), The Handmaid’s Tale (Atwood, 2017), and Stella Manhattan (Santiago, 2011) explores narrative representations of tensions between identity, power, and social normativity, understanding literature as a site of meaning production that challenges theoretical categories. The study further distinguishes three levels of legal operation–positive law, institutional practices, and legal discourse–highlighting the gap between formal recognition and lived experience. Empirically, it considers national and international contexts through selected paradigmatic cases, including non-Western experiences such as the hijra category, in order to question the universality of identity frameworks. The dissertation concludes that the legal recognition of Queer identities constitutes a structurally ambivalent process, in which the expansion of protection coexists with the delimitation of intelligibility. Human rights are thus understood as a historically situated and contested field, in which forms of recognition are continuously reconfigured.