Course overview
Travesti identity is a particularly distinguishing form of self-identification among trans people in South America. The term emerged from the context of travesti theater in Brazil, but it disseminated widely throughout the region, encompassing the tours of theatrical companies and modest cabaret performances. This identity has been described in various ways, including as a “game of men dressed up as women.” However, it has evolved to challenge traditional notions of gender expression on stage and to be used as a descriptive term for individuals who live their daily lives as women. During the 1980s, the popularization of hormone therapy and the emergence of precarious surgical interventions transformed the travesti identity from a performance and costume to a technology practice inscribed upon the body. In contemporary discourse, the term travesti has been employed to vindicate the pejorative usage of the term by various entities, including the press, law enforcement, and societal actors. From a queer perspective the term is currently utilize to underscore the political potency of denouncing the marginal conditions experienced by individuals who do not conform to gender binarism, racial, and nationalistic expectations.
Lectures and assignments schedule
- 1st class – October 3
What is the travesti identity today? Political meaning of travesti identity and their connections with queer theory.
Reading: The “Empire” Strikes Back: A Post-transsexual Manifesto by Sandy Stone.
- 2nd class – October 10
How transformed the travesti identity along the 20th century? History of travesti identity in South America
Reading: Trans and Travesti Identities in 20th-Century South America by Marce Butierrez and Mir Yarfitz
- 3rd class – October 17
Where was the term travesti born and how circulated across South America? Embodiment, surgeries, sex.
Reading: Travesti: Sex, Gender, and Culture among Brazilian Transgendered Prostitutes by Don Kulick, and Image Politics and Disturbing Temporalities: On “Sex Change” Operations in the Early Chilean Dictatorship by Fernanda Carvajal.
- 4th class – October 24
What is the travesti fury? Travestis incursions in the Political field in Argentina.
Reading: Lohana Berkins: A Latin American Travesti Theory of the Body by Patricio Simonetto and Salvador Vidal-Ortiz, and “Walking Around Naked Sets Back our Struggle”: Travesti Activism, Repression, and Public Space in Buenos Aires (1994–1998) by Ana Alvarez
Watching: Album de Familia by Laura Casabe.
- 5th class – October 31
Scandal, disobedience, and rebellion: the main political strategies of the travesti citizenship.
Reading: Scandalous acts: the politics of shame among Brazilian travesti prostitutes by Don Kulick and Charles Klein, and Perverse Citizenship: Divas, Marginality, and Participation in “Loca-Lization” by Marcia Ochoa
Marce J. Butierrez 