Call for papers
The 21st century is the era of cybersex, characterised by a “new sexual order” (Authier 2002), where we are witnessing the unprecedented intrusion of sex into our consumer societies. Sex is overexposed, “hard”, “trash” or “gore” (Juranville 2007: 19), leading to a phenomenon of “mass eroticism” (Melman 2002). However, in the Lusophone academic world, critical readings of erotic literature (Erotica) published over the centuries remain a blind spot in Lusophone literary studies. This literary field is depreciated and debated, leaving an entire share of the Lusophone literatures in the shadow or in the “inferno” of our libraries, when not burned to ashes by the Inquisition or censored by dictatorial regimes.
Throughout history, representations of sex and eroticism have flourished in both Art and Literature. That can be witnessed in the orgiastic and erotic scenes depicted in ancient Greco-Roman frescoes, the tradition of the Shunga in Japan or literary works such as The Song of Songs, the Kamasutra, The Metamorphosis by Ovid, the Marquis de Sade’s oeuvre, and later works like Sacher-Masoch’s Venus in Furs (1870), D. H. Lawrence’s Chatterley’s lover (1928), A. Nin’s Delta of Venus (1969) or C. Millet’s La vie sexuelle de Catherine M. (2001). Many of the works mentioned above have today a place in western literary canon. The same is true for the Lusophone literatures, particularly in Portugal, where the literary breakthrough coincided with the rise of troubadour lyricism. Interestingly, medieval Cantigas de Amigo and Cantigas de escárnio e maldizer, despite being considered “immoral”, managed to be accepted into the Portuguese literary canon and legitimized by the academic discourse for their significant literary value. Nonetheless, some of the contemporary texts, or those written in subsequent centuries, have been discarded or erased.
In modern Western societies, despite the evolution of women's rights and the sexual liberation, the discourse on sex is still socially taboo. For example, consider the outraged reactions in the Swedish society and media, to the gigantic blue penis by the artist Carolina Falkholt on a Stockholm building: Fuck the World (2018). Any work seeking to represent sex, sexuality or erotic themes often bears the mark of an “aesthetic of evil” (Bataille 1957) and tinged by “the dark shimmer of sex” (Foucault 1978: 207). The etymology of the adjective “erotic” comes from the Latin eroticus, derived from the ancient Greek erôtikós, which is connected to love. Thus, eroticism intertwines the idea of a feeling with a “metaphoric dimension” (Baudrillard 2000: 33-34) and simultaneously involves a realistic/explicit physical and sexual response. This duality explains the paradigm shift in the mainstream discourse, where eroticism is often conflated with pornography. However, the distinction between them is typically not descriptive but rather evaluative or normative (Paveau 2014: 39). Drawing on gay-lesbian and postporn studies, the American anthropologist and feminist activist Gayle Rubin observes that what conditions and restricts freedom of expression or visual representation is the legal dimension, related to the issue of obscenity (2019: 289). Obscenity, as linked to exhibition, brings us back to its etymology: ob-scene, “what should remain off scene, not seen”. Thus, one could argue that any erotic artwork grapples with normative rules or laws. First, it manifests a deviance from the “political economy of sex” (Rubin 34: 2019), which confines human sexuality and gender to a procreative and patriarchal system. Secondly, it effects a transgressive shift of sexual practices from the ob-off/scene to the on/scene (Williams 234: 1992), challenging the old lens of perversion and pathology, which historically analysed sexual variation (Williams 236-9: 1992), by promoting an analysis based on legitimacy and diversity. It is no surprise, therefore, that throughout literary history, obscenity has been used as a recurrent criterion and political tool to ban or denigrate the aesthetic or literary value of a work. Chatterley’s Lover by Lawrence or, in Portugal, Novas Cartas Portuguesas (1972) by As Três Marias are emblematic examples. Indeed, the work by three women was labelled “amoral, obscene, and pornographic” (Lentina 2016, 2018, 2019) by the Portuguese dictatorship, which led to its censorship, as was the case for many others during the dictatorship, both in Portugal and Brazil.
In the Portuguese context, after the abolition of the Real Mesa Censória (1821), a publishing boom emerged, with translations and adaptations of French libertine works that had circulated clandestinely during the Inquisitorial period. In the late 19th, intense production of Erotica, with notable authors like A. de Chatenay and A. Gallis, began to emerge in Portugal and Brazil, representing a lucrative market for publishers and booksellers (Curopos, 2020a). However, under Salazar’s dictatorship (1933-1974) in Portugal, the circulation and production of these works came to an abrupt halt. Despite this, Erotica continued to be published abroad for the Luso-Brazilian markets (Curopos, 2020b). Research on the circulation or production of Erotica in African Lusophone countries, during colonization or after the independence, remains underdeveloped, and the discovery of works such as The black Decameron (1910) by L. Frobenius (Chavoz 2020) is yet to be undertaken. More recently, on the other side of the Atlantic, some erotic tales from the Brazilian indigenous communities were compiled by the anthropologist B. Mindlin (1997).
Unlike other genres, Lusophone Erotica has been poorly preserved (or largely excluded) from the national libraries (Portugal, Brazil and African lusophone countries). In fact, it was deliberately excluded or destroyed for social or political reasons – issues that we aim to address in this conference. What is undeniable, however, is that this accursed share (Bataille 1967) of literature is still viewed as sub-literature or as an infamous waste not worthy of preservation. The conviction that this idea can be refuted is what motivates us to propose (re)building a Luso-Afro-Brazilian erotic library.
Objectives
This two-day conference “A Luso-Afro-Brazilian inferno: (re)-building an erotic library”, the first of its kind in Sweden, aims to build and establish an international research network to engage in the debate and research on Erotic Literature written in Portuguese. The objective is to uncover and study forgotten or censored works and authors (both men and women) in order to establish a corpus of this genre and to (re)build an erotic library. By gathering specialists and researchers in the field, the conference will facilitate the development of a research network and the subsequent dissemination of the event’s findings through a joint publication (special issue in the international journal Moderna Språk - open Access). The event will also serve to publicly disseminate knowledge of this genre within the Lusophone world and the global research community. Unlike the example of the Enfer of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France or the Private Case of the British Library, where some Lusophone Erotica has been preserved, this heritage remains invisible today, as no such collection exists national libraries within the Portuguese-speaking world.
We welcome papers on topics including, but not limited to, the historical production and censorship of Lusophone Erotica, the intersections of eroticism and politics, and comparative analyses with other literary traditions. The following thematic lines and/or dichotomies may also be considered:
- eroticism / pornography
- canonical / marginalized / accursed authors (men and women)
- circulation of pornographic journals
- the market of pornography in the Portuguese-speaking world
- speakable / unspeakable
- “on-scene” / “ob-scene” (Linda Williams)
- normal / abnormal
- moral / amoral
- representation of sexual diversity
- imaginary of prostitution.
Date, venue and language
Languages of the conference: Portuguese or English.
Venue: Dalarna University, Falun, Sweden.
Dates of the conference: September 4th–5th, 2025.
Practical Information
Submission of article proposals: Title and abstract (maximum 500 words), accompanied by a brief biographical note, to be sent by April 30th, 2025, to the following Email: inferno.lusoafrobra@gmail.com.
The organizers will communicate their decision no later than May 15th. Authors whose proposals are accepted must confirm their participation in the event by May 30th.
Keynote speakers
Eliane Robert Moraes
Eliane Robert Moraes is researcher investigating the relations between culture, literature and eroticism, Eliane Robert Moraes is Professor of Brazilian Literature at the University of São Paulo (USP) since 2010 and a Senior Researcher of the CNPq (The Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development) since 2009. Holder of a Doctorate in Philosophy, she has been a visiting professor at the University of California in Los Angeles – UCLA (USA), at the Université Paris Nanterre - Paris 10 (France) and, as an Erasmus Mundus Visiting Scholar at both the Université Via Domitia – Perpignan (France) and the Universidade Nova de Lisboa (Portugal). She currently supervises Master, PhD and Pos-graduation studies at the University of São Paulo as well as PhD’s co-supervisions in the universities Vincennes-Saint Denis (Paris 8) and Sorbonne Nouvelle (Paris 3) in France.
For almost two decades her academic work focused on European literary erotica, from the libertine fiction of 18th-century France, particularly that of the Marquis de Sade, to the work of such surrealist authors as Louis Aragon and André Breton, as well as the group that gathered around Georges Bataille and Michel de Leiris. She has also written essays on Lautréamont, Apollinaire, Octavio Paz, Nabokov and Kavafis, among others. After working on these authors, over the last decades her focus has been trained on Brazilian erotic literature.
Her published books include seven essays and the translation of Georges Bataille’s Story of the Eye to portuguese. She has also organized, among other books, the first Brazilian Anthology of Erotic Poetry (Antologia da poesia erótica brasileira), which was edited in 2015 in Brazil, and in 2017 in Portugal and 3 commented selections of erotic brazilian tales, published both in Brazil and Portugal. She currently writes literary criticism articles for Brazilian newspapers and magazines, and her last book is The Brazilian Accursed Share - Literature. Excess. Eroticism [A parte maldita brasileira. Literatura, Excesso. Erotismo.] also edited in Brazil and Portugal by Tinta da China Editors.
Complete CV Eliane Robert Moraes (buscatextual.cnpq.br)
César Braga-Pinto
César Braga-Pinto is George F. Appel Professor in the Humanities and a Professor of Brazilian, Lusophone African and Comparative Literature at Northwestern University (USA). He is the author of A Violência das Letras: Amizade e inimizade na literatura brasileira (1888-1940) (EdUERJ, 2018) and As Promessas da História: Discursos Proféticos e Assimilação no Brasil Colonial (2003). He also co-edited with Fatima Mendonça a collection of early 20th-century Mozambican journalism writings entitled João Albasini e as luzes de Nwandzenguele: literatura e política em Moçambique 1908-1922 (2014).
He currently serves as Associate Dean for Graduate Studies at WCAS. He has previously taught at Rutgers University and was a visiting professor at Columbia University and at the Eduardo Mondlane University (Mozambique) as a Fulbright Scholar. He was also a Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the Brazil Institute at King's College in London (2013) and a post-doctoral fellow at University of São Paulo (2006-2007). In 2005 he participated in the NEH (National Endowment for the Humanities) Summer Institute on African Cinema in Dakar, Senegal.
Complete CV César Braga-Pinto (spanish-portuguese.northwestern.edu)
Transport and Accomodation
How to get from Arlanda Airport to Falun by train
Arlanda is Stockholm's main international airport. It is situated about 35 km north of Stockholm. You can take a train directly from the airport, with no changes, to Falun. The train station (Arlanda C) is located inside the airport, in Sky City, the central area of the airport. Please note that since the train station in the airport is privately operated, you need a ticket that is booked to/from Arlanda C in order to enter (or exit if you are coming from Dalarna to the airport) the train station.
There is a service desk in the central area of Sky City close to the shops. You can buy tickets in the automatic machines next to the service desk. You can also book ahead on SJ.se, but you can only use the ticket on the train you booked it for (something to consider with the potential for flight delays and baggage problems), so give yourself plenty of time between landing and your train departure. Please note that ticket prices are usually cheaper when you book in advance.
A lift from Sky City takes you down to the railway platform, located underground. There are several departures to Falun each day. The trip (direct) takes about 2 hours 20 minutes to Falun.
See map/itinerary Arlanda C – Falun C (Google Maps)
Accomodation
Located just steps from Högskolan Dalarna’s Campus Falun, Scandic Lugnet is the nearest hotel.
Hotel Scandic Lugnet Booking webbsite (scandichotels.com)
Other hotels in the centre of Falun and closer to the train station (Falun C) (Approximatively 20 minutes walk from Falun’s centre to the Campus):
- Quality Hotel Grand Falun (strawberry.se)
- Home Hotel Bergmästaren (strawberry.se)
- Hotel Falun (hotelfalun.se)
Organizing and scientific committee:
Alda Maria Lentina – Dalarna University, LiS (Sweden)
Fernando Curopos – Sorbonne Nouvelle, CREPAL (France)
Maria Araújo da Silva – Sorbonne Université, CRIMIC (France)
Organized by
Dalarna University and LiS (Research Group: Literatures in Society).
In partnership with
References
AUTHIER, Christian. 2002. Le nouvel ordre sexuel, Paris: Bertill.
BATAILLE, George. 1962. Eroticism (1957), N.Y.: Walker and Company.
- 1988. The Accursed Share, An Essay on General Economy (1967), N.Y: Zone books.
BAUDRILLARD, Jean. 2000. Mots de passe, Paris: Le Livre de poche.
CHAVOZ, Ninon. (2020). Le Décaméron noir : héritages érotiques de Leo Frobenius. Colloque international Sud-africain : “Sade au miroir des littératures africaines francophones. Erotisme, violence et obscénité”, Paris: Sorbonne-Université, 23-24 janvier. Link: https://hal.science/hal-03491784/document
CUROPOS, Fernando. 2020a. “Paris-Lisboa-Rio de Janeiro: Trânsitos eróticos”, in Faces de Eros, Curopos, Fernando ; Macedo, Algemira de ; da Silva, Maria Araújo ; da Silva, Fabio Mario (orgs.), Teresina-Piauí: Cancioneiro, p. 11-26.
- 2020b. ‘‘Lisbonne-Madrid-Barcelone : circulations érotiques’’. Catalonia, 27, Deuxième semestre p. 97-114. https://crimic-sorbonne.fr/ouvrages/catalonia-27/
- 2023. “A biblioteca (in)visível”. Rio de Janeiro: Convergência Lusíada, v. 34 (50), p 12-31.
Dictionnaire de l’Académie Française. Paris: Editions Fayard.
FOUCAULT, Michel. 1978. The History of sexuality. Vol. I, N.Y.: Pantheon Books.
JURANVILLE, Anne. (2007). “L'érotisme en question. Regard sur quelques aspects de la littérature féminine contemporaine”. Paris: Connexions 87 (1). Link: https://doi.org/10.3917/cnx.087.0019.https://shs.cairn.info/revue-connexions-2007-1-page-19?lang=fr&tab=texte-integral
LENTINA, Alda Maria. 2018. “Novas Cartas Portuguesas: a vagina dentata das Três Marias”, in Revista Via Atlântica (33). São Paulo: USP. Link: http://www.revistas.usp.br/viaatlantica/article/view/140254
- 2019. “Novas Cartas Portuguesas: Mariana Alcoforado and her Hysterical, Lesbian and Nymphomaniac avatars”, in Beyond Binaries: Sex, Sexualities and Gender in the Lusophone World, Oxford: Peter Lang, Portuguese Studies Series. (ISBN: 978-1-78707-615-0)
MINDLIN, Betty. 1997. Moqueca de maridos: Mitos eróticos (Mindlin & indígenas). Rio de Janeiro: Editora Rosa dos Tempos.
MELMAN, C. 2002. L’homme sans gravité. Jouir à tout prix. Paris: Denoël.
MORAES, Eliane Robert. 2015. Antologia da poesia erótica brasileira. Cotia, São Paulo: Ateliê Editorial.
- 2023. A Parte Maldita Brasileira. Literatura. Excesso. Erotismo. Lisboa: Tinta da China.
PAVEAU, Marie-Anne. 2014. Le discours pornographique. Paris: La Musardine,
RUBIN, Gayle. 2019. Surveiller et jouir. Anthropologie politique du sexe. Paris: Epel.
WILLIAMS, Linda. 1992. “Pornographies and on/scene or diff’rent strokes for diff’rent folks”, in Sex Exposed, Sexuality and Pornography debate, Segal L. et alt, Rutgers: University Press.
