LOOKING OUTSIDE THE “CANON”: THE TRAJECTORY OF BLACK WOMEN WRITERS IN BRAZIL

Abstract

It is well known that the Brazilian literary canon was, in part, constructed under the Eurocentric gaze of white men, resulting in the marginalization of Black women, who were portrayed in texts (when they appeared at all) through stereotypical, negative images, creating a historical cycle of invisibility. This exclusion is not accidental, but rather a consequence of a patriarchal and racist structure that created a stereotypical standard of what should be considered good and bad within the literary context. Given this scenario, this work aims to analyze how this process of exclusion of Black women in Brazilian literature occurs, as well as to reflect on female resistance based on the writings of Black women such as Conceição Evaristo and Carolina Maria de Jesus. To conduct this study, this work draws on the reflections of Miranda (2019), Compagnon (1999), Almeida (2020), Ribeiro (2020), Carneiro (2023), among others.