Não identidades que definem: para uma leitura contrapontual da Antropofagia a partir da literatura brasileira de autoria negra

Abstract

Este projeto pretende construir um contraponto entre a Antropofagia e a literatura brasileira de autoria negra, coligando-as respetivamente com os imaginários da mestiçagem e da consciência negra, para interrogar os processos de construção e negociação de uma ideia de nação brasileira. A metáfora da “antropofagia”, cunhada por Oswald de Andrade para simbolizar o processo de apropriação da cultura do colonizador pelos colonizados, foi revolucionária por ter colocado uma identidade heterogénea, fluida e anticartesiana como sendo o cerne da nacionalidade brasileira. Isto parecia desconstruir um ideal eurocêntrico de nação, em que esta era concebida como fixa e homogénea, mas, ao mesmo tempo, abria possibilidades para conceptualizar mecanismos muito refinados de governo das diferenças. O imaginário antropofágico encontra hoje possibilidades de questionamento e de deslocamentos dentro da literatura produzida por escritores e escritoras afrodescendentes. Estes/as remetem-se a formas de essencialismo estratégico, retomando a discussão sobre a identidade brasileira a partir da perspetiva de sujeitos racial e etnicamente marginalizados dentro da sociedade, bem como na narrativa nacional. vi

RESUMO EM INGLÊS This project aims to build a counterpoint between Antropofagia and Afro-Brazilian literature, linking them respectively with the imaginaries of mestizaje and black consciousness, in order to interrogate the processes of construction and negotiation of an idea of the Brazilian nation. The metaphor of “anthropophagy”, coined by Oswald de Andrade to symbolise the process of appropriation of the coloniser's culture by the colonised, was revolutionary for having placed a heterogeneous, fluid and anti-Cartesian identity as the core of Brazilian nationality. This seemed to deconstruct a Eurocentric ideal of the nation, in which it was conceived as fixed and homogeneous, but at the same time opened up possibilities for conceptualising very refined mechanisms of governing differences. Today, the anthropophagic imaginary finds possibilities of questioning and displacement within the literature produced by writers of African descent. The latter refer to forms of strategic essentialism, resuming the discussion on Brazilian identity from the perspective of racially and ethnically marginalized subjects within society as well as in the national narrative.

This project aims to build a counterpoint between Antropofagia and Afro-Brazilian literature, linking them respectively with the imaginaries of mestizaje and black consciousness, in order to interrogate the processes of construction and negotiation of an idea of the Brazilian nation. The metaphor of “anthropophagy”, coined by Oswald de Andrade to symbolise the process of appropriation of the coloniser's culture by the colonised, was revolutionary for having placed a heterogeneous, fluid and anti-Cartesian identity as the core of Brazilian nationality. This seemed to deconstruct a Eurocentric ideal of the nation, in which it was conceived as fixed and homogeneous, but at the same time opened up possibilities for conceptualising very refined mechanisms of governing differences. Today, the anthropophagic imaginary finds possibilities of questioning and displacement within the literature produced by writers of African descent. The latter refer to forms of strategic essentialism, resuming the discussion on Brazilian identity from the perspective of racially and ethnically marginalized subjects within society as well as in the national narrative.