Coelho Neto’s Intersexual Imagination

ABSTRACT

The article discusses the figure of the “androgyne” in three texts by Coelho Neto: “Ode fescenina” (1895), Esfinge (1908) and O patinho torto (1918). It considers how during Rio’s fin de siècle, “androgyne” refers to heterogeneous realities and corporalities. It argues that the author deployed the professionalization of the press to explore the changes in behavior and the fluidity in gender categories introduced with modernity.

KEYWORDS:
Coelho Neto; gender; androgyne; fin de siècle; fashion