WSQ: Women's Studies Quarterly

Abstract:

This article explores the contemporary literature of Afro-Brazilian women writers Lívia Natália, Cristiane Sobral, and Cidinha da Silva to understand how they cope with the personal impact of various forms of racial discrimination. The analysis fleshes out the imaginative juxta-position of African heritage, diasporic Black identities, and discriminatory contexts, with an emphasis on literary representation and interpretation of African religious symbols such as Eshu and Pomba Gira and how such symbols underscore the survival of African cultures on Brazilian soil vis-àvis the history of Black subjectivity. Literature as antiracist armament used by Black female subjects testifies to their resilience and demonstrates how their transformational discourses are necessary to revise the historical epistemic violence of oppressive systems and to express their personal and collective identities.