"Oferenda ao altar da—ausência”: o romantismo sáfico em Olivia (1949) de Dorothy Strachey

Abstract

Despite the growth in the number of studies on the queer movement and queer literature, there are still gaps when it comes to studies that relate the romantic aesthetic to queer literature, and when speaking specifically of sapphic literature, the scarcity is even greater. For this reason, this dissertation aims to investigate the characteristics of the romantic movement that appear with some frequency in works of Sapphic literature in order to understand the relationships that can be established between the two themes. To do this, we use Dorothy Strachey's novel Olivia, first published in 1949, as the main object of analysis. Initially, we follow a path through the historiography of lesbian literature with the aim of rescuing and preserving Sapphic love and culture. Here, we rely on theorists such as Rich (2012), Koppelman (1994) and Polesso (2020) and writers such as Sappho (2002), Behn (2013) and Strachey (2020) herself. Next, we proceed to a conceptual discussion of romanticism as an artistic and literary movement and its main characteristics through theorists such as Wellek (1949), Peckham (1951) and Lovejoy (1924). Finally, we look at the romantic influences present in Olivia and how they help to construct a narrative of sapphic desire. We also discuss issues related to the translation of lesbian works, or the lack thereof, and its consequences for the preservation of the memory and struggles of sapphic women in literature.