From A Sodom of Mine to a Sodom of Ours. Sexual Identity and Illness in the Poems of Francisco Casas

Abstract

In this article, I carry out a critical reading of the collection of poems entitled “Sodoma Mía”, by Francisco Casas. I rely on two key reading approaches: sexual identity and illness. More specifically, I examine the poetic mechanisms through which the author builds a “self” figure from a dissident sexuality, considering the interactions with the social and artistic context in which his work is inscribed: the beginnings of the postdictatorial period in Chile. I assert that the literary subject of this collection constructs its place of enunciation through the poetic appropriation of AIDS/HIV. Furthermore, this allows him to bring about a collective project of acknowledgement and subversion.