“A escrava”, de Maria Firmina dos Reis: uma perspectiva decolonial e ecofeminista

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the short story “A escrava” (“The slave woman”), by Maria Firmina dos Reis, from an ecofeminist and decolonial perspective. Reis published the first Brazilian novel written by a woman, Ursula, pioneer in the defense of abolitionism in the country. “The slave woman”, released originally in1887 in Revista Maranhense, addresses the same theme. The text presents a dialogue between a white lady and her guests in a living room, who debate about the end of slavery. This lady states that such measure is urgent, due to moral and religious principles, and also because Brazil is behind other countries, where enslaved people were already free. She tells her guests of an episode when she saved a black slave woman who had escaped from her master. The lady challenged the system by protecting this woman, imposing herself in a patriarchal, capitalist, slavery-based society. The decolonial approach is supported by María Lugones’s theory (2014 [2010]) and Vandana Shiva (2002 [1989]), among others. The ecofeminist perspective counts on considerations by Izabel Brandão (2017; 2019), Karen Barad (2007) and Stacy Alaimo (2010 and 2017 [2007]), in the literary passages where the black character’s actions mirror natural elements, which is a metaphor for the deep connection among all beings. Such connection is also in agreement with decoloniality, as it questions the centrality of human beings, and their alleged superiority, to the detriment of the more-than-human (Alaimo, 2010).