Compulsory heterosexuality and Caribbean queer identities: an investigation of Achy Obejas's Memory mambo and Shani Mootoo's Valmiki's daughter

• Autor(a) principal: Pires, Raquel Gonçalves
• Data de Publicação: 2015
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Biblioteca Digital de Teses e Dissertações da UERJ
• Texto Completo: http://www.bdtd.uerj.br/handle/1/6773
• topic: Compulsory heterosexuality; Identity; Exile; Oppression; Homophobia; Obejas, Achy, 1956- - Crítica e interpretação; Obejas, Achy, 1956-. Memory mambo; Mootoo, Shani, 1957- - Crítica e interpretação; Homossexualismo na literatura; Identidade sexual na literatura; Homofobia na literatura; Literatura caribenha - História e crítica; Heterosexualidade compulsória; Identidade; Exílio; Opressão; Homofobia; CNPQ::LINGUISTICA, LETRAS E ARTES::LETRAS::LITERATURAS ESTRANGEIRAS MODERNAS

This thesis intends to examine how socially constructed ideas of compulsory heterosexuality affect non-conforming individuals from the Caribbean, as illustrated in the novels Memory Mambo by Cuban-American Achy Obejas and Valmiki s Daughter by Trinidadian-Canadian Shani Mootoo s. This work primarily focuses on the analysis of sexual politics concerning homosexuality both in the islands of the Caribbean and in the United States of America. In Memory Mambo protagonist Juani Casas wishes to understand how her condition of Cuban exile has shaped her sexual identity and how her lesbianism affects her relationships with family members and lovers. Reconstructing her story by means of an unreliable memory, Juani attempts to discover the deep connection between her sexuality and her nationality so that she can make sense of both. In Valmiki s Daughter, Viveka Krishnu and her father Valmiki Krishnu try to conceal their true desires because of so-called correct behavior prescribed for both men and women in Trinidad, and more specifically in a Hindu-Caribbean society. Father and daughter suffer from oppression and try not to be victims of constant homophobia by either hiding their sexuality or fleeing the island. Thus, through literary representation, both Obejas and Mootoo engage in a much-needed discussion about the consequences of sexual politics in the identity construction of Caribbean individuals living on the islands or in diasporic destinies