Ele está presente: a obra de Silviano Santiago e as performances do artista perigoso

Abstract

The dissertation intends to discuss on the representation of the artist in Silviano Santiago s literary productions, focusing mainly on the figure of writer-narrator of the novel Uma história de família (1992), in comparative analysis with other writers and artists whose their literary and artistic productions had dealt with the first decades of HIV/AIDS, such as the pop-rock singer Cazuza, and the visual artist Leonilson, who had made a pose of dangerous individuals in Brazilian mass media. Therefore, the dissertation places emphasis in Silviano Santiago s productions that can be named as the performance of the dangerous (HIV-positively) artist, in which the relationship among disease, pain, pleasure, and literary labour can be verified. Other artists are analyzed, such as the writer Jean-Claude Bernardet, the visual artist Teresa Margolles, the performer Ron Athey as well as the above quoted Cazuza, and Leonilson. The Doctorship thesis and the Mastership dissertation of Marcelo Secron Bessa are the point of departure of this study, which aims to dialogue with the concept of performativity by Judith Butler, the Henri-Pierre Jeudy s notion of body in the art as a radical Other, and the Susan Sontag s analysis about the relationship between HIV/AIDS and metaphorical discursivities. The critical texts from Silviano Santiago are also fundamental tools to this study, specifically in their analysis about the relationship between pain and literary creation as well as their notion of an astute homosexuality in response to heteronormative discourses