DECOLONIAL ECHOES AND THE IDENTITY OF BLACK WOMEN IN “A ESCRAVA” BY MARIA FIRMINA DOS REIS

Abstract

This paper proposes to analyze the decolonial echoes in the short story "A escrava", by Maria Firmina dos Reis, released in 1887. The work is inserted in the idea of a fragmented identity (HALL, 2001) of the XIX century black woman lived by the character Joana and the character lady who by listening to the cries of the subaltern (SPIVAK, 2010) solidarizes with this and all black women who were treated by the society built by the oppressive colonialism (QUIJANO, 2005). The identity movement of the characters raises the following question: how does the work "A escrava" from the decolonial echoes highlights the stigmas caused to the identity of black women? To answer the problematization we will go through contributions of a decolonial feminism (VERGÈS, 2020), as well as the power of speech (RIBEIRO, 2017) given to Joana and the lady, when they raise their voices (HOOKS, 2019) to denounce the evils caused by the slave society. Therefore, this whole investigation process elucidates the pains caused to black women by the patriarchalist/slave society of the XIX century and reveals that Maria Firmina dos Reis already echoed a decolonial feminism (LUGONES, 2010) in Brazil.