Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Melodrama, Camp, and Sexuality in Nelson Rodrigues’s O Beijo no Asfalto

2019; Department of Spanish and Portuguese, University of Kansas; Volume: 52; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/ltr.2019.0004

2161-0576

Israel Pechstein,

Arts and Performance Studies

While Nelson Rodrigues was known to incorporate melodramatic techniques in his plays, his specific bending of melodrama’s norms has yet to be fully explored. In his 1960 O beijo no Asfalto, the theme of sexuality together with the play’s melodramatic plot can be read through a camp perspective that offers more constructive readings of homosexuality than those present in previous criticism of the text. Through an analysis of Aprígio and his son-in-law and protagonist, Arandir, this essay points to the strengths of a camp reading of an already perverted melodrama by showing the sexual ambiguities that arise in the play: Aprígio’s masking and dramatic revelation of his homosexuality and Arandir’s conflicted views of the gay kiss that gives name to the play.