The marginalization process of António Botto: poetry, homoeroticism, and critical hostility

Abstract

This article examines the career of poet António Botto and the ways in which he was constantly forced to respond to a literary field that sought to disqualify his poetic project, primarily due to the homoerotic content of his work. Since the Literatura de Sodoma controversies of the early 1920s, Botto endured the consequences of the homophobic and heterosexist discourses that shaped the Portuguese cultural landscape in the first half of the 20th century. Although the controversy itself was seemingly short-lived, lasting only a few months between 1922 and 1923, the poet faced ongoing reprisals that echoed its effects, even if indirectly. To this end, this study analyzes a selection of prose and verse texts that reflect Botto’s resistance to hostile critiques of his poetry, from the 1920s to the period of his exile in Brazil, when traces of critical opposition to his work could still be observed.