Lesbians on the road: Patricia Highsmith and the road novel canon
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.1984-1124.i43p127-142Keywords:
road novel, lesbian geographies, lesbian chronotopiaAbstract
This paper explores lesbian possibilities in the road novel genre, analyzing it from a critical perspective of the literary canon, with the goal of understanding which stories have shaped the world over time. It explores how the travel literature genre has historically consolidated itself through the male perspective on the journey. Next, the article proposes a reflection on how Patricia Highsmith's work, The Price of Salt, offers an entry point for lesbian narratives in the road novel genre and how it influenced authors of her generation. Finally, I present a cartography of lesbian narratives, Lesbian Chronotopia, as a reconfiguration of what is understood as travel and as narrating the world.
Downloads
References
ASSIS, F. G. Queertopias: corporalidades sonhadas em narrativas contemporâneas. Maceió: Edufal; Imprensa Oficial Graciliano Ramos, 2021.
BAKHTIN, M. Formas de tempo e de cronotopo no romance. In: Bakhtin, Mikhail. Questões de Estética e de Literatura. São Paulo: Annablume/Hucitec, 2014.
BERCOVITCH, S. The Cambridge History of American Literature. V. 7, Prose Writing, 1940–1990;
BLANTON, C. Travel Writing. Taylor & Francis Group, 2002.
BORYSOW, V., & ARNÉS, L. . Ficções lésbicas: ponto de vista e contingências. Revista Criação & Crítica, 20, 169-191.(2018)
BRIGHAM, A. American Road Narratives: Reimagining Mobility in Literature and Film. University of Virginia Press, 2015.
Castle, T, The Ick Factor The New Republic, 2003. Disponível em <https://newrepublic.com/article/67226/the-ick-factor> .Acesso em: 15 de set. de 2025.
CARDOSO, M. CARDOSO, Y.. Mulher na estrada: Edith Wharton e o relato de viagem turística. Miguilim – Revista Eletrônica do Netlli, Crato, v. 13, n. 2, p. 25-39, maio-ago. 2024.
CARDOSO, M.; COQUEIRO, W.. BILDUNGSROMAN E ROAD NOVEL: APROPRIAÇÕES DO ROMANCE FEMININO CONTEMPORÂNEO. Uniletras, v. 44, p. 1–18, 1 jan. 2022.
CLIFFORD, James. Routes: Travel and Translation in the Late Twentieth Century. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1999.
GANSER, A. Roads of Her Own. BRILL, 2009.
GAY, R. The Portable Feminist Reader. Penguin, 2025.
HIGHSMITH, P. The price of salt. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2015.
KLEIN, K. Queer Home on the Road: Lesbian Escape and the Great American Road Trip. Arizona quarterly/The Arizona quarterly, v. 80, n. 2, p. 57–84, 1 jun. 2024.
LOURO, G. L. Um corpo estranho: ensaios sobre sexualidade e teoria queer. Belo Horizonte: Autêntica Editora, 2018.
MARTINEZ, M. Narrativas de viagem: escritos autorais que transcendem o tempo e o espaço. Intercom - Revista Brasileira de Ciências da Comunicação, São Paulo, v. 35, n. 1, 2012.
MODERNELL, Renato. Em trânsito: um estudo sobre narrativas de viagem. São Paulo: Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie, 2009. Tese ( Doutorado).
MUÑOZ, J. E.. Cruising utopia : the then and there of queer futurity. New York: New York University Press, 2009.
POLESSO, N. B. Geografias lésbicas: literatura e gênero. Revista Criação & Crítica, n. 20, p. 3–19, 20 abr. 2018.
POLO, Marco. As viagens. São Paulo: Martin Claret, 2001.
POLO, Marco. O livro das maravilhas. Porto Alegre: L&PM, 1999.
RICH, A. “Notes toward a Politics of Location” .In: On Lies, Secrets, and Silence: Selected Prose 1966-1978. W. W. Norton & Company, 1979.
SILVA, M. C. DA. A estrada do medo: mobilidade e trauma no road novel Sing, Unburied, Sing, de Jasmyn Ward. Ilha do Desterro A Journal of English Language, Literatures in English and Cultural Studies, v. 77, p. 1–25, 22 dez. 2023.
VESELKA, Vanessa. Green Screen: The Lack of Female Road Narratives and Why it Matters. The American Reader, vol. 1, n. 4, fev./março de 2013. Disponível em: <https://theamericanreader.com/green-screen-the-lack-of-female-road-narratives-and-why-it-matters/>. Acesso: 10 set. de 2025.
VILAS BOAS, Thayrine; DIAS, Fábio Luiz de Castro. Dos fundamentos kantianos do conceito de cronotopo de Mikhail Bakhtin: convergências e divergências. A Palo Seco – Escritos de Filosofia e Literatura, São Cristóvão-SE: GeFeLit, n. 15, p. 8, 2023.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors can enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) before and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).