Erotic Innuendos in Asfalto Selvagem by Nelson Rodrigues

Abstract

The investigation of the seductive game, often buried under cover of dissimulation, which involves us in family, religious, political contexts among many others and the outbreak of repressed desires and fantasies exposed by Nelson Rodrigues in Asfalto Selvagem: Engraçadinha, seus amores e seus pecados were our academic investigation purposes. Theoretical principles related to literary verisimilitude developed by Terry Eagleton, as well as Freud’s psychoanalytic principles in relation to the feminine, the bisexual and the passive were our theoretical foundation and provided us with arguments to deepen the interpretations of Rodrigues’ writings. To this end, our specific objectives were: a) To relate Freud’s attempts on the feminine, in the characters Engraçadinha, Silene and Letícia and; b) To analyze the movement of bisexuality in the character Letícia. Our research was bibliographic, descriptive with a qualitative approach. Through the readings and investigations undertaken, we realized that Nelson Rodrigues’ novel presents not only patterns of behavior that describe characters based on psychoanalysis, but the author himself, at various times, uses psychoanalytic terms to explain the behavior of some of them and reveal patterns in others, which proves Nelson Rodrigues’ psychoanalytic perspective.