Estudo comparativo de Úrsula, de Maria Firmina dos Reis e Água de barrela, de Eliana Alves Cruz: a ficção brasileira narrada por mulheres negras

Abstract

This dissertation aims to comparatively analyze the two main novels, being Úrsula, from 1859, written by the black poet and teacher, Maria Firmina dos Reis, and Água de lya, from 2016, written by the black journalist Eliana Alves Cruz, presenting the relationship of causes and consequences analyzed to better support the conclusions of this research. These writers sought in their ancestry to create narratives that absorbed part of the previously segregated history of Brazil. In this way, it is proposed to give relevance to the presence of black women in the Brazilian literary field and the creations of black female characters. This research relates historical and cultural time, when remarkable events are related to manifestations of an artistic nature, proposing greater concreteness about contemporary literature written by black women: reflecting on the presence of patriarchal thinking in literature, debating racial prejudice arising from the hegemonic Brazilian society . The theoretical sources for this dissertation were Critique of Black Reason, (2019) by Achille Mbembe; Blackness: uses and senses, (2020), by Kabengele Munanga and Diaspora Negra no Brasil, (2019) by Linda Heywood, whose works present statements about Afro-diasporic and Afro-Brazilian black identity. As a literary foundation there are studies by Alfredo Bosi, História Concisa da Literatura Brasileira, (2014), Eduardo de Assis Duarte, Literature Afro-Brazilian: 100 authors from the 18th to the 21st century (2014), Afrânio Coutinho, A Literatura no Brasil (2016). ), between others. Thus, it was noticed the growing position of women ahead of Brazilian publications that dealt with the condition of women and their working and living conditions in society, their rights and recognition as producers of knowledge from their female characters. Consequently, it is evident the importance of studying and highlighting this literary production by black women created as a way of re-signifying their presence and importance.