The enunciation of the anti-racist discourse on children’s literature

Abstract

The anti-racist discourse enunciated in literary practices aimed at children is part of the struggles of black movements for freedom, equality and rights. The aim of this article is to understand the constitution of regularities in the scenographies that shape these practices, which are the foundations of the conditions of enunciation for combating racism. In order to achieve this goal, we approach the literary text from the perspective of discursivity, understanding that the text is the result of the dynamics of life in society, as well as interfering in the processes of consolidation and transformation of these same dynamics. We will do this by mobilizing the concepts of discursive practice and scene of enunciation, as postulated by Maingueneau (2001, 2004, 2005, 2008, 2012, 2015). We also mobilize the concepts of coloniality and decoloniality, as postulated by Bernardino-Costa and Grosfoguel (2016), Maldonado-Torres (2007), Torquato and Kondo (2020), and Walsh (2009). Gosto de África: histórias de lá e daqui (2005) and Amoras (2018), are the literary works selected to indicate features of an anti-racist discourse in the making in literary practices aimed at children: (i) the articulation between fictional space-time and historical space-time; (ii) the confrontation of the space-time of patriarchal relations, breaking with the erasure and silencing of black women in the history of Brazilian society; (iii) the investment in the constitution of an enunciator and an enunciatee in whose elaboration of the literalness of the literary work poetizes references to blackness. These traits lead us to conclude that the production of children’s literature aligned with an anti-racist stance is an artistic and political action that not only represents the fight for freedom and equality. It is the struggle for freedom and equality itself.