O Medo de Camila: o Grotesco a partir da colonialidade no filme Praça Paris (2018)

Abstract

The present research proposes the analysis of the figuration of the black body, which we associate with the conceptions of the aesthetic category of the Grotesque, employed in a critical way in the film Praça Paris (2018), directed by Lúcia Murat, and in which ways this unveils a permanence of coloniality in Brazilian contemporaneity. Based on the intellectuals of the Modernity/Coloniality group we understand that modernity was only possible for Europe as of colonization in America, and consequently, because of enslavement. Thus, the countries that were once colonies did not experience modernity, but coloniality. While the Grotesque, in the European context, is a product of modernity, in Brazil it shows itself as a product of coloniality. Therefore, certain representations of the black body that dialogue with the Grotesque, upon the categorization of bodies as "us" and "others", were established during the colonial period and perpetuated by coloniality. When employed in a critical way by Lúcia Murat in the film Praça Paris, these representations instigate the viewer to perceive the permanence of coloniality in contemporary Brazil and how this colonial heritage presents itself through racism and whiteness.