The Trans‑writing of the Self: Subversion and Dissidence in Camila Sosa Villada’s A viagem inútil (The Useless Journey)

Abstract

This article analyzes the autobiographical essay El viaje inútil: Trans/Escritura (2024), by the travesti writer Camila Sosa Villada, with the aim of problematizing literature and writing as tools for the subversion of hegemonic identities. It is based on the hypothesis that the writing of the self, by challenging discursive and social norms, enables the emergence of dissident bodies as subjects of enunciation, agency, and existence, destabilizing the normative regimes that have historically marginalized them. The work in question is thus understood not only as an autobiographical narrative, but as a political and aesthetic gesture of reinscription. In this sense, the article investigates the articulation between knowledge, power, and discourse based on the contributions of Michel Foucault (1995; 2012). Likewise, it mobilizes the conceptual development of the category of gender in light of Judith Butler's queer theory (2003; 2016), emphasizing the performativity of gender and the possibility of subverting it through dissident discursive practices. This theoretical framework allows us to understand Camila Sosa Villada's writing as a space of resistance and identity reconfiguration. As a complementary contribution, the article draws on the reflections of Candido (2023; 2011), Dalcastagnè (2005), and Lopes (2005), which enable us to think of literature as a field of symbolic dispute, social critique, and transgression, especially with regard to the representation of historically excluded subjects. Methodologically, the research is based on a bibliographic survey, taking as its corpus the analyzed work and the central theoretical texts for the proposed discussion. In this way, it seeks to highlight how literature can operate as a critical practice capable of challenging norms, expanding horizons of intelligibility, and affirming new possibilities of existence.