Name: IZABEL RIZZI MAÇÃO
Type: PhD thesis
Publication date: 18/10/2022
Advisor:
Name |
Role |
|---|---|
| JULIO CÉSAR BENTIVOGLIO | Advisor * |
Examining board:
| Name |
Role |
|---|---|
| ALEXSANDRO RODRIGUES | Co advisor * |
| JÉSIO ZAMBONI | External Examiner * |
| JULIO CÉSAR BENTIVOGLIO | Advisor * |
| LÍVIA DE AZEVEDO SILVEIRA RANGEL | External Examiner * |
| MARIA BEATRIZ NADER | Internal Examiner * |
Summary: Adèlaïde Herculine Barbin was a French teacher diagnosed as a male hermaphrodite at the age of 21. After having her civil status rectified, she was renamed Abel Barbin. In 1868, already living as a man, Herculine committed suicide. Beside her body, the manuscript My Memories was found, in which she narrated the misadventures and joys of her brief existen-ce. Rediscovered by Michel Foucault in the late 1970s, the document was published, to-gether with other sources, under the title Herculine Barbin dite Alexina B. The analysis of this work demonstrates that a question was insistently addressed to Herculine: what was her true sex? She, however, disarticulated and returned the question to the sexuality device, asking it as follows: do we really need a true sex? Following this small question raised by Herculine, we are dedicated to elucidating the obstinacy of medical knowledge, especially those developed at the end of the 19th century in Europe, for revealing the true sex of indi-viduals considered uncertain. We also pay attention to the potentialities expressed by Her-culine to escape the dictates of univocal sexual distinction and the power devices that sought to tame her difference. To carry out this investigation, we used several methodolo-gical tools, with emphasis on genealogy as thought by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Gil-les Deleuze and Michel Foucault and on minor literature, according to Deleuze and Félix Guattari´s proposal.
