A escrita de si sob um olhar decolonial: diálogos entre Quarto de Despejo de Carolina Maria de Jesus e Cartas a Uma Negra, de Françoise Ega.

Abstract

In our research we direct our gaze to the importance of the literary discussion about the epistolary novels of decolonial narratives, since, in the contemporary context, we recognize that the literature of reexistence, especially those written by black women, is an important way to promote the rupture of colonial thoughts that are still perpetuated in today's society. By recognizing the link between a national work and a French language work, we realize the relevance of recognizing these works in the literary and academic milieu, both Brazilian and Francophone. Thus, we turn our attention to the production of a writer from Martinique who was inspired by a Brazilian writer. Methodologically, this work has a qualitative approach (OLIVEIRA, 2007), because it stops at the detailed study of literary objects demanding an interpretative reading guided by a comparative approach (D'ONOFRIO, 1999), we understand, according to Gil (2002) that this research is also documental and bibliographic. In this sense, we delimit our general objective, which intends to discuss the writing of the self from a decolonial point of view and explain the dialogues between the epistolary autobiographies Quarto de despejo by Carolina Maria de Jesus and Cartas a uma negra, by Françoise Ega. To meet this goal, we have outlined the three specific objectives: a) to analyze the concept that embraces decolonial literature, especially that written by black women; b) to investigate how the epistolary novel, as a genre, relates to the theory of writing of the self in autobiographies; c) to compare the divergences and similarities between the themes addressed and the conditions of production of the works in parallel to the reality of the authors' socio-historical soils. Our analysis is anchored to the concept of decoloniality and Afro-diasporic literature of Maldonado-Torres, Grosfoguel and Bernardino-Costa (2020), Lugones (2012) and Kilomba (2019) when dealing with black female authorship and for the construction of the autobiographical concept and the writing of the self we took advantage of the assumptions of Lejeune (2008) and other authors. Among the conclusions reached in this research, we reaffirm that through the decolonial conception about literature, it is possible to develop a resistant look and open new horizons not only to foster socio-historical connections between different cultures that may present similar realities, but also to encourage the knowledge of the past so that we can build a more resilient and empathetic future towards social groups that have long been subalternized in the social environment.