FROM THE TUMBEIROS TO THE PERIPHERIES: DOMINATION, RESISTANCE AND STRUGGLE

Abstract

The article examines the subordination of the black population in Brazil from the colonial period to the present day, highlighting the permanence of racist legislation in the Brazilian legal system and the marginalization of Afro-Brazilian voices in literary historiography. Using the interdisciplinary approach of Law and Literature, the research analyzes divergences and convergences in the treatment of Afro-descendants throughout Brazilian history, focusing on the short story A escrava, by Maria Firmina dos Reis. It is argued that the exclusion of Firmina from canonical historiographies is a reflection of a political-ideological project rooted in Brazilian Romanticism, whose purpose was to sustain an elitist and Eurocentric national identity. The study concludes with the defense of the implementation of an anti-racist education, based on Law 10.639/2003, as a way to decolonize knowledge, promoting representativeness and recognition of the Afro-Brazilian contribution in the literary, historical and cultural spheres.