Amor e seus enigmas: rastros da volúpia e do pecado na erótica de Cassandra Rios

Abstract

The aim of this study is to analyze the sentiment of love, in the novel A Flor e a Serpente (1972), by Cassandra Rios, in which, we intend to review the construction of love between the two main characters. Cassandra Rios' pioneer narrative opens up a breach for a, much needed, reevaluation of the impositions and dictates enforced to individuals considered to be deviant and abnormal. Her transgressive writing gives visibility to the way of life, the conflicts and the prejudice suffered by those individuals that dare to live a "different sentiment". Besides demystifying extremely rooted ideas about love – widely spread in the dominant discourse – that used to portray it as being exclusive of those who fall into heterosexual standards. According to Freud, human sexuality expresses itself in a plural and multifaceted way, that is to say that we can not limit it to a strictly biological relationship. The theoretical framework we utilize in this study is substantiated by contributions of various fields of knowledge, such as philosophy, sociology and psychoanalysis. Nevertheless, Freudian and Lacanian psychoanalysis together will be the biggest contributors to deciphering the enigmas surrounding love, desire and sexuality. Naturally, this study's main purpose is to open a discussion about the myths surrounding love, widely spread by a dominant discourse, and how these social constructions established a supposedly "correct" and only way of loving, inhibiting any other loving expression that differs from the standards heterosexuality imposes.