Between silence and words: the self-representation of black women in Úrsula by Maria Firmina dos Reis

Abstract

This article analyzes the self-representation of black women in the novel Úrsula, by the 19^th century Maranhão writer Maria Firmina dos Reis. It aims to answer the following question: how is the black woman self-represented in Ursula? To this end, we sought to look at some historical and social aspects concerning the condition of black women in the country in the context in which the work is set, in addition to identifying the ways in which black women are silenced or break this silence in the work, as well as analyzing the Afro-feminine gaze present in the narrative, emphasizing self-representation as a way of transgressing imposed silencing. This is a bibliographic work, which adopted a qualitative approach and thematic analysis of a literary work that serves the initial theoretical purposes, relying on authors such as Duarte (2018, 2019), Evaristo (2005, 2003). Gonzalez (2020), Miranda (2019) and Orlandi (2007). The results show that the silencing of black women is based on the triad of sex, race and class, especially the first two. In other words, by the very institutions of slavery and patriarchy which, together, delegated black women a place of non-speech, transgressed, however, by the enunciative voice of the character Susana, a black woman, and the voice that narrates the story. In doing so, they mark a new literary form: that of self-representation. This, in turn, is committed to a political bias and to recovering the memory and real history of black people, in order to reconstruct or reaffirm their cultural identity.