Literature and Sexuality

Abstract

In this paper, the author proposed to consider some controversies on the approach of the sexuality in the literature. The sexuality, which throughout occidental history, has been shown either as sin or as illness, from the literary point of view, reaches other connotations considering that the artistic text does not have dogmatics or moralistic pretensions, nor it is defined as scientifically confirmed truths. Throughout this paper, some concepts and interpretations about  deviations of sexual behavior are shown, linking them to the day-by-day of people represented in the literary texts. With illustrations that go from Petronius, Apuleius and Sofocles until Adolfo Caminha and Guimarães Rosa, it is presented some data about human being sexuality that literary field will help us demystify. Beyond the heterosexuals conventional romances, this paper reveals that literature has a potential of expression of the reality human being that many times is camouflaged, or simply it does not become visible and, therefore, these lines can cause certain stupor in the reader.