Leandro COLLING
Doxa: Rev. Bras. Psico. e Educ., Araraquara, v. 18, n. esp. 1, e023005, 2023. e-ISSN: 2594-8385
DOI: https://doi.org/10.30715/doxa.v24iesp.1.18188 5
[...] The notion of poetics has at least two meanings: one of a normative nature
and another of a descriptive nature. Historically, the first notion of poetics is
associated with normative models of literary creation. Consider, for instance,
the poetics of Aristotle and Boileau, which normalized literary production
through a set of rules. After the rupture provoked by Russian formalism and
French structuralism, the term 'poetics' was applied not to normative studies
but to descriptive ones. Just as structural linguistics sought to describe the
functioning of language, structural poetics sought to explain the functioning
of literature, particularly narrative texts. [...] With the downfall of the myth of
a universal structure upon which structuralist thought was based, the term
"poetics" lost its universalist pretension and acquired a new connotation.
Instead of seeking the "universal constants" that would define the novel, the
short story, poetry, or theater, the term is now used in more specific contexts,
addressing more or less comprehensive issues without aspiring to universalize
these recurrences (ALÓS, 2010, p. 842, our translation).
When discussing queer poetics, the author emphasizes that we should consider a poetics
that transcends the realms of a purely authorial approach. "The foundations of queer poetics, in
this sense, are not only to describe narratives; they also enable an accurate analysis of how the
text reflects, subverts, and questions the reality of the social world in which it is inserted"
(ALÓS, 2010, p. 843, our translation). By following Anselmo Alós's (2010) concepts of what
would constitute a "queer poetics" – that is, thinking about how artistic expressions of
dissidence have reflected, subverted, and questioned our reality – we realize that the word is
not sufficient to encompass the entire complexity of this creative scene. This is not only due to
the existence of multiple poetics, as highlighted by Alós (2010), who advocates against
adopting universalizing objectives when approaching poetics but also because the artists in this
scene are already in a phase that we could call post-queer.
But what is post-queer? Suppose the queer movement produced significant intersections
between sex, gender, and sexuality. In that case, the post-queer in Brazil has expanded
intersectionality that we may not fully comprehend yet: it encompasses the intersection between
sex, gender, sexuality, race, and ethnic-racial identities, among other social markers. This
development is partly due to the influence and strength of Black feminism in our country and
the proliferation of its activism and studies within and outside universities. Therefore, the most
appropriate expression to describe this artistic scene is the "artivist scene of sexual, racial, and
gender dissidences." This choice is not only based on the fact that a large part of this scene is
produced by Black and mixed-race individuals but also because the racial dimensions in the
works are intrinsically linked to the sexual and gender dimensions.