Intelectuais negras: prosa negro-brasileira contemporânea

Abstract

The present work proposes to discuss the role of the black woman as an intellectual engaged in the struggle for the transformation of the Brazilian society, from contemporary black women narratives. In this investigation, I analyze the works Mulher Mat(r)iz (2011) and Bará na trilha do vento (2015), by Miriam Alves; Becos da Memória (2006) and Olhos d’agua (2014), by Conceição Evaristo; and Espelhos, Miradouros e Dialéticas da Percepção (2011) and O Tapete Voador (2016), by Cristiane Sobral. For this, the theoretical reference of this research includes theories about "the role of the intellectual" (SAID, 2005) and, more specifically, about the black intellectual (hooks, 1995), as well as questions related to the peculiarities of black woman literature (FIGUEIREDO, 2009), to "everyday politics" (hooks, 1995), to black feminism (CARNEIRO, 2003), among others, also considering the critical fortune about Brazilian black women writers in general and about the women writers mentioned above. In her books, Miriam Alves, Conceição Evaristo and Cristiane Sobral address the main demands of black women in contemporary times, give visibility to African and Afro-Brazilian cultures, denounce the marginalized and subalternized condition of the black and make this literature written by women a local of force, resistance, affirmation and denunciation. Thus, more than analyze the peculiarities of black female writing, this research proposes to undertake a discussion about the role of the black woman writer as a contemporary intellectual. Intellectual that comes to the public sphere to build a space of intervention in social reality and, even more, acting to transform the asymmetrical and wicked social and cultural relations that have perpetuated gender and ethnic-racial divisions throughout Brazilian history.