A muted palette; or, the importance of not being black
2023; Berghahn Books; Volume: 23; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.3828/jrs.2023.18
ISSN1752-2331
Autores Tópico(s)Caribbean and African Literature and Culture
ResumoThis article considers the themes of race and gender in José de Alencar’s Indianist novels (Iracema and O guarani) and Bernardo Guimarães’ abolitionist work (A Escrava Isaura). It argues that due to the near-extinction of the indigenous population in the aftermath of Portuguese colonization, the glamorous and tragic figure of the Indian in Brazilian literature has acted as a convenient pretext for avoiding the issue of black slavery in a country and epoch that had supposedly embraced the liberal principles of the nineteenth century in Europe, but whose economy was largely dependent on slave labour. Particular focus is placed on the figure of the dead or disempowered female protagonist (black, Amerindian or white) as the instrument for the attainment of a miscegenated national identity supposedly indicative of egalitarianism through the agency of love at the expense of the lives of the indigenous and black inhabitants, and specifically women.
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