A despossessão de Anderson Herzer entre performances e discursos

Abstract

Based on studies of identity semiotization in narratives and the process of discursive formation that legitimizes (as well as operates in the opposite direction), this dissertation, situated within the field of Indisciplinary Applied Linguistics, investigates identity practices and experiences of dispossession in the autobiographical work A Queda para o Alto (1982), by Anderson Herzer, a transsexual man institutionalized at Febem during the Brazilian military dictatorship. The study analyzes how the author semiotizes his trajectory, examining processes of subjectivation and resistance in the face of normative regimes. The theoretical framework articulates Michel Foucault’s conceptions of Discourse (1971; 1975; 1988), discipline, and biopolitics with Judith Butler’s (1990; 2004) and Vladimir Safatle’s (2015) theorization of gender performativity and dispossession, in addition to Raewyn Connell’s (1995) concept of hegemonic masculinity. Methodologically, the research adopts narrative and life stories analysis (Labov, 1972; Linde, 1993), focusing on indexicality (Silverstein, 1976; 2006) and “turning points” (Mishler, 2002) in the narrator’s sequentiality. The analysis encompasses four decisive moments: birth and orphanhood; adoption and disciplinary conflicts; institutionalization at Febem and gender transition; and political articulation prior to suicide. The results indicate that, although Herzer’s narrative predominantly indexes Discourses of institutional violence, the experience of dispossession paradoxically operates as a condition of possibility for the emergence of a transmasculine existence and of a political voice that denounces the precariousness of life under biopower.