Dissolution and apotheosis of the queer body in The Lazarus Heart, by the trans author Poppy Z. Brite

Andrio J R Dos Santos

doi:10.1590/2596-304x20212344ajrs

Abstract

ABSTRACT In The Lazarus Heart, the trans author Poppy Z. Brite sets a brutal anatomy of gender and sexuality, and examines the violence and abjection frequently imposed on queer subjects, especially on trans people. Body, gender, and sexuality occupy a central role in the novel, which allows Brite’s work to be read as queer Gothic, a type of fiction understood as an interstice between Gothic studies and queer studies. Berenice Bento states that transsexual bodies are fabrications engendered by particular technologies, and Butler defines gender as performance; these are the central issues to the analysis I propose here. My main goal is to discuss the thematic development towards the body. I pay particular attention to the violence inflicted upon, as well as the restoration of the body, also observing the character development of Lucrece.

Highlights

Susan Stryker (2008) remarks on the importance of integrating trans experience into fiction, which not necessarily reduces a study to some sort of biographical speculation—a source of anxieties throughout Brazilian literary studies
We are approaching the work of authors who “write about what they know,” which is a common saying in the North American publishing market
Hughes and Smith (2009) had already observed that, before transitioning, Brite had worked as a stripper on the north and less mainstream side of New Orleans

Summary

Introduction

Susan Stryker (2008) remarks on the importance of integrating trans experience into fiction, which not necessarily reduces a study to some sort of biographical speculation—a source of anxieties throughout Brazilian literary studies. Dissolution and apotheosis of the queer body in The Lazarus Heart, by the trans author Poppy Z.

Results

Conclusion