“Meio”, raça e homoerotismo em Bom-Crioulo de Adolfo Caminha (1895)

Abstract

The naturalist romance Bom-Crioulo, published in 1895 by Adolfo Caminha (1867-1897), explores themes of scientism in trend at the end of the 19th century and how the determining influences of the “middle” would affect human behavior. The work also explores themes that escaped from what was socially accepted at the time, such as those related to gender, sexualitty. This work speaks how to identify the scientific theories present in Bom-Crioulo, analyze the literary trajectory of Adolfo Caminha, the historical context in which the romance was written and published and its reception. The work addresses the passion of Amaro, the black man and former slave, for Aleixo, the young white man. The homoerotic narrative ends with the murder of Aleixo at the Amaro's hands. This research (repetiu muito "trabalho" mudei para pesquisa) seeks to observe how the work brings revolutionary approaches within a conservative society, by exploring, in a direct and explicit way, themes then considered great taboos. In the same time, that love promotes the criminalization of a former homosexual slave, based on scientific assumptions according to which there would be, the factors that drive the characters' actions, theories linked to racialism, nineteenth-century scientific criminology and the idea that the homoaffectiveness would be a detour or a disease.