“A path to the liberation of others”

(non) belonging in Conceição Evaristo’s tales

Abstract

This article proposes to map the idea of ​​(non-) belonging of black characters portrayed in the storybook Olhos d’água (2014), by the Minas Gerais writer Conceição Evaristo. In our analysis, we will focus on three short stories of the work, “Duzu-Querença”, “O cooper de Cida” and “Hey, Ardoca”, in which the nuances of the work are revealed, such as racism, silencing, suffering, pain, anonymity, violence and suicide. It is intended to foster the debate about how paths are denied (or at least made difficult) for black subjects within society and, on the other hand, it seeks to emphasize the literary bias as a space of visibility for anonymous beings repeatedly cantoned. In a more detailed way, we intend to observe aspects of Conceição Evaristo's textual fabric, notably with regard to the constitution of narrative voices. For that, we adopt the decolonial perspective (Almeida, Césaire, Kilomba, Salgueiro), we highlight the reflections around black feminism (Akotirene, Kilomba, Ribeiro), necropolitics (Mbembe), the presence of blacks in contemporary female literature (Dalcastagnè) , besides going through literary works and interviews by Evaristo, as well as theoretical criticisms about his work.