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This dissertation explores the performance of gender and sexuality through armed bodies as counter-narratives in 21st-century Latin American literature. It analyzes three works featuring female or transgender protagonists who challenge heteronormative and patriarchal institutions such as the military and academia. The study highlights how these characters’ embodied performances act as forms of resistance and protest, articulating discourses of equality and subverting social stigma and stereotypes.
This research develops counter-narratives highlighting bodies as resistance, focusing on trans* and travesti characters amid current political challenges for women and LGBTQ+ people. It responds to recent U.S. federal actions restricting reproductive rights and LGBTQ+ visibility—such as abortion rollbacks (Dobbs vs. Jackson), the 2025 transgender military ban, and state-level book bans—which increase biopolitical control and limit autonomy for marginalized groups.
The dissertation underscores literature’s power to perform protest and influence ideologies by transmitting historical memory and emotions. It argues that the novels serve as alternative readings contesting hegemonic state and federal norms, preserving memories of gender struggles through archival and performative modes. Notably, two of the analyzed works are authored by men, reflecting complex gender dynamics in literary production. The third work is written by a woman who openly challenges misogyny, and patriarchal political power.
The analysis integrates performance, and trans* theories to reveal how the characters embody resistance across cultural and social dimensions. The interdisciplinary approach validates the central thesis that these literary bodies perform counter-hegemonic acts, challenging marginalization and reclaiming agency. The study aims for a humanistic perspective that dismantles stigmas and stereotypes surrounding gender and sexuality in Latin American contexts.