Embodied voices: embedding contemporary Afro-Brazilian women writers

Abstract

The present contribution seeks to examine the works of a selected number of contemporary Afro-Brazilian women writers and activists. From the way these voices have contributed to the advancement of the Black movement in Brazil – especially since the 1980s – particular attention will be given to the way the body figures both a central topic as well as an agent of their work. The overall assumption is that the body (both material and metaphorical) becomes a dynamic site of aesthetic, political, and environmental negotiations, and poetry and literature function as a social practice. By looking at how a new view on bodily cognition and discourse can prove decisive for the reconfiguration of political categories (identity, subjectivity, gender, and race), the assumption is that a novel notion and poiesis of the Afro-Brazilian self can be teased out from these works.

Keywords:

• Afro-Brazilian literature
• racial democracy
• body politics

Notes

1. If not stated otherwise, the translations are mine.

2. Afolabi (2001, p. 117) notes: ‘In [a] mixture of social conformism and resistance, the Afro-Brazilian woman is multiply burdened. Often fulfilling the roles of mother, lover, provider, spokesperson, encourager, nourisher, she becomes fragmented in an effort to assert her individuality in the midst of social conventions and racial stereotypes’.

3. The 1st Congress of Brazilian Blacks was organized in 1950 by TEN and held in Rio de Janeiro (Da Silva Martins et al. 2004, p. 791).

4. For a more detailed overview, see Da Silva Martins et al. (2004, p. 792) and Oliveira (2008, p. 27ff).

5. In terms of the Black movement, Brazil and the USA are comparable, especially when it comes to the topic of miscegenation. However, one should never underestimate the unique development of the Brazilian Black movement, in particular, in regard to its relation to the historic ‘Quilombo de Palmares’ (Hamilton 2007).

6. Maria Firmina dos Reis (1825–1917), who is regarded as the first Black female Brazilian writer, wrote her only novel Úrsula in 1859 and a book of poetry called Cantos à beira mar in 1871. Amongst other early notable activists/poets of African descent in the nineteenth century is the symbolist poet and journalist João da Cruz e Sousa (1861–1898), who also wrote abolitionist chronicles. His works, such as Evocações (1896) and Broquéis (1893) express his opposition against racial discrimination and contribute to the formation of an early Black consciousness and pride.

7. http://cadernosnegrospoemas-miriamalves.blogspot.com/2011/03/eu-mulher-em-luta.html. Trans. Catarina Aleixo.

8. http://pelenegra.blogspot.com/2008/09/vozes-mulheres-de-conceio-evaristo_30.html. Trans. Catarina Aleixo.

9. http://cadernosnegrospoemas-miriamalves.blogspot.com/2011/02/ser-inteligivel-e-o-inteligivel-do-ser.html. Trans. Catarina Aleixo.