SEXUAL CULTURES OF 20 TH - CENTURY BRAZIL Course Syllabus

Course Aims and Objectives This course aims to provide a broad introduction to the diverse “sexual cultures” – that is, practices, identities, and communities linked to sexuality – which have inhabited 20-century Brazil. Drawing from anthropological and historical texts, we will cover a range of sexual cultures (including Brazil’s emergent lesbian and gay communities, transgendered travestí, sex workers, and poor favelado communities), in each case examining configurations of identity, practice and desire. Although the focus will be on non-normative or “alternative” sexual cultures, we will nonetheless devote time to considering “mainstream” and “traditional” constructions of sexuality, particularly how conventional notions of gender (grounded in the distinction between masculine activeness and feminine passivity) have structured (and continue to structure) Brazil’s multifaceted sexual universe. While male perspectives have been disproportinately represented in the social science literature to date, we will strive throughout to consider implications for female sexuality and broader theorizations of gender.