Nonconforming desire in The devil to pay in the backlands, by Guimarães Rosa

Abstract

If the critics of The devil to pay in the backlands has been moving forward in the discussion about the sensual aspect of the friendship between the protagonist and narrator Riobaldo and Diadorim, there is still a path to build with regard to the prostitutes and partners Maria-da-Luz and Hortência/Ageala. The present work consists in comparing the pairs Riobaldo/Diadorim and Maria-da-Luz/Ageala as two distinct homosexual arrangements and redeeming the lesbian existence from its peripheral status in Rosa’s novel. For this purpose, the theoretical framework is based on arguments from Eve K. Sedgwick, in Between men (1985), and Terry Castle, in The apparitional lesbian (2003), among others. It analyses, also, the cross-dressing condition of Diadorim, that creates a new path in terms of gender.