Esquina expresso: fragmentos da homossexualidade em tempos de ditadura

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to present a way of “reading” and “seeing”, in letters from readers of the newspaper Lampião da Esquina (1978-1981), fragments of homosexuality in times of the Brazilian military dictatorship (1964-1985). It aims to investigate the socio-historical conditions in which these missives are written; their main objectives; who writes/reads them and the subjects/themes they involve, from the specific perspective of letters from readers published in Lampião. Based on the theoretical contribution of Assunção (2007); Foucault (2004); Gomes (2004); Green (2000); Quinalha (2022), among others. Lampião’s correspondence is characterized not only by the reference, but also by the self-writing. These fragments contain issues that were unpublished and/or prohibited in the mainstream press at the time, which marked the subjectivity of the homosexual experience in the late 1970s and early 1980s.