The horrible story to be told after August: an analysis of two short stories by Caio Fernando Abreu

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5902/1679849X74654

Keywords:

Caio Fernando Abreu, Depois de Agosto , Linda, uma história horrível , AIDS

Abstract

Currently a reference author of Brazilian literature, Caio Fernando Abreu was part of a generation of writers that was repressed by the authoritarianism of the dictatorial government, suffering from censorship and the limitation of freedom of artistic and political expression. Approaching themes such as the uncertainty of life, the fear of death and sex and the approach to AIDS, considered the “gay cancer” in the 80s and of which he was a victim, made one of his short stories, “Linda, uma horrible story” (1988), was included in the anthology The Penguin book of international gay writing in 1995. Within the theme of AIDS, the short story “Linda, a horrible story” (Linda) together with “After August” (1995), published shortly before his death in 1996, will be analyzed here based on aspects of illness, sadness and melancholy of his characters.

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Author Biography

Ricardo A. Moreira, Universidade de Minnesota

Doutorando em Hispanic and Lusophone Literatures, Cultures, and Linguistics na University of Minnesota.

References

ABREU, Caio F. Os dragões não conhecem o paraíso. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 1988.

ABREU, Caio F. Ovelhas negras. Porto Alegre: Sulina, 1995.

ARENAS, Fernando. Utopias of Otherness: nationhood and subjectivity in Portugal and Brazil. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2003.

GINZBURG, Jaime. “Memória da ditadura em Caio Fernando Abreu e Luís Fernando Veríssimo. Letterature d’America, v. 113, p. 95-110, 2008.

SCLIAR, Moacyr. Saturno nos trópicos: a melancolia européia chega ao Brasil. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2003.

SONTAG, Susan. AIDS and its metaphors. New York: Farrar, 1989.

SONTAG, Susan. Illness as metaphor. New York: Farrar, 1978.

Published

2009-12-10

How to Cite

Moreira, R. A. (2009). The horrible story to be told after August: an analysis of two short stories by Caio Fernando Abreu. Literatura E Autoritarismo, (2), e6. https://doi.org/10.5902/1679849X74654