The critical tensions between the theoretical and literary works of Conceição Evaristo: the case of Aramides Florença

o caso Aramides Florença

Abstract

For this article, we have laid out side by side samples of the literary and theoretical-critical works of Conceição Evaristo, a writer and also a PhD in Comparative Literature. This motion allows us to point out similitudes and incongruences between what is produced by Evaristo in terms of theory and what she then puts down on paper, which leads us to this article’s main objective: to present the developments of the analytical course that serves as backbone to the study we have proposed which focuses on analyzing the images of maternity found in the short story “Aramides Florença”, a part of Evaristo’s Insubmissas lágrimas de mulheres, originally published in 2011. In this short story or, better yet, this narrated-woman, we witness tears that set the tone for the remainder of the stories found in this compendium, that is, the image of resilience and imminent permanence of these women when facing the terrors that confront them. Aramides, for example, is found by our narrator in a post-catastrophe moment in which she can be seen as the survivor of the violent games of male competition and also is now someone who can freely call something or someone hers which, in this case, is her son Emildes, whose father is never given a name in the story. From the multiple interpretative conundrums that pour out of this story, a myriad of discussions opens up, traversing areas of study such as Literary History and Feminist Studies and letting us in, which makes it easier to understand what are the great triumphs of these areas as much as their specific downfalls, a pathway that gets us to the complex understanding of how maternity may be diversely perceived by black women.