Entre o silêncio e a palavra: a autorrepresentação da mulher negra em Úrsula de Maria Firmina dos Reis

Abstract

This article undertakes an analysis of the self-representation of black women in the novel Úrsula, authored by Maria Firmina dos Reis, from Maranhão, in the 19th century. It aimed to answer the following problem: how does the black woman represent herself in Úrsula? Therefore, we sought to contemplate some historical and social aspects concerning the condition of female blackness in the country in the context in which the work is inserted, in addition to identifying the forms of silencing or disruption of this, by the black woman in the referred work, as well as analyzing the afro-feminine look present in the narrative emphasizing self-representation as a way of transgressing the imposed silencing. This is a bibliographic work, which adopted a qualitative approach and thematic analysis of a literary work that serves the initial theoretical purposes, relying on authors such as Reis (2018), Duarte (2018-2019), Evaristo (2005-2013 ). Gonzalez (2020) and Orlandi (2007). The results indicate that the silencing of the black female being is based on the triad of sex, race and class, especially the first two. That is, by the slavery, patriarchal institutions and even the social dynamics which, together, delegated to the black woman a place of non-speaking, transgressed, however, by the enunciative voice of the character Susana, a black woman, and the voice that narrates the story. history. By doing so, a new literary practice is marked: that of self-representation. This in turn committed to a political bias and to the rescue of the memory and real history of the black people, in order to rebuild or reaffirm their cultural identity.

Keywords: Literature. Self-representation. Black woman. Muting.