Performances in a narrative by Sonia Coutinho

Abstract

In this article, we suggest the concepts of performance (Butler, 1990) and narrative performativity (Berns, 2013) as analytical tools for reflecting upon Toda Lana Turner tem seu Johnny Stompanato, a short story by the Brazilian writer Sonia Coutinho. A double movement will guide our analysis: we present an articulation between a perspective that takes into account the gender constitution of the characters and a narratological approach towards the reflexive/metafictional form which marks the composition of the short story. By making use of an ironical, intertextual and multi-layered style of writing, Sonia Coutinho constructs a narrative that proposes different discursive agencies in relation to the many instances in which characters’ subjectivities take place. In this sense, we consider this short story as having a deep mark of what we might understand as post-modern literature, for the multiplicity of spaces, characters and times is characteristic of a collective agency between reality and fiction.