Each man kills the thing he loves: Uma leitura queer de “O berloque vermelho”

Silva Pinto’s “The red pendant”, is presumably the first expression of the erotic relation between two men that is presented in the fist person in Portuguese literature. A queer reading of this short story sheds light on Portuguese gay masculinity, at a time in which the category of homosexuality was still being forged, but not yet assimilated by Portuguese scientia sexualis, society and culture. Contemporary, as it is, of the first literary and media representation of homosexuality, the short story anticipates the first national controversy raised by the process of its juridification and psychiatrization, in which controversy the author took part, with a remarkable future impact.