RACE AND SEXUALITY AS A RUPTURE IN ADOLFO CAMINHA'S BOM-CRIOULO: THE AGON OF THE BLACK AND GAY SUBJECT

Abstract

This article analyzes Adolfo Caminha's Bom-Crioulo (1895), considering the work a landmark in Brazilian literature for its innovative approach to homosexuality and racial issues within the naturalist context of the 19th century. The research focuses on the construction of the Black and gay subject, represented by the protagonist Amaro, identifying how the narrative tensions racial stereotypes, subverts heteronormative norms, and highlights the agon of the marginalized subject in a society marked by structural racism and moral conservatism. The work is analyzed in light of critical theories on race and sexuality, including Frantz Fanon, Stuart Hall, Judith Butler, and Bell Hooks, as well as studies on naturalist literature and representations of racialized and LGBTQIA+ bodies. The analysis demonstrates that Caminha, by humanizing Amaro, transforms the Black and homoerotic body into a space of subjectivity and resistance, breaking with naturalist conventions of objectification and determinism, and creating a narrative that anticipates contemporary debates on identity, marginality, desire, and power. The article concludes that Bom-Crioulo constitutes a work of literary and social rupture, offering a critical perspective on the intersections between race, sexuality, and subalternity, and highlighting the potential of literature as an instrument for reflection and contestation of historically exclusionary social norms.