Subversion to the Tradition of Literatura de Cordel: a look at the black female protagonism in Jarid Arraes’s cordéis

Abstract

ABSTRACT

In this research, we will analyze three cordéis from the book Heroínas Negras Brasileiras: em 15 cordéis, by the writer Jarid Arraes, a work that presents an approach in which black and female protagonism is highlighted. The main objective of this article is to demonstrate, through Jarid's cordéis, the subversion in Literatura de Cordel, breaking with sexist and racist traditions, both in terms of authorship, since it is a black female cordelista, and in terms of the theme itself, that places black women in a leading role. In this sense, the cordelist announces a literary production that points to the need to establish another logic, another thought, for the prevailing power relations in Brazilian society. Her work escapes from the traditional narratives disseminated about African / Afro-Brazilian people, as it subverts the stereotype of captive, subalternized, invisible and eroticized by presenting multiple stories of black women who had relevant roles in varied areas. This is a bibliographic research, based on theoretical foundations of the following authors: Adichie (2009), Evaristo (2020), Maxado (2011), Ribeiro (2017; 2019), hooks (2019), among others. We intend to collaborate with new reflections on the cordel produced by black women in contemporary times and, thus, take them from the margins to the center of discussions, so that they can be read, heard and studied in spaces that usually create resistance to that right.

KEYWORDS: Decolonization. Afro-Brazilian Literature. History. Literature de Cordel. Black women.