Pleasure and Healing

The Erotic Writing of Carmen Faustino and the (Self)Representation of Black Women

Abstract

In the literary scene, whether in authorship or protagonism, the presence of black female bodies does not occur with the same frequency as that of white women. Seeking to develop new strategies to occupy spaces and create narratives of (self)representation, black women have been exploring the path of erotic writing, since eroticism, as Audre Lorde (2020) points out, is a transformative power capable of awakening what is most intimate and subjective. To illustrate this issue and understand how this erotic writing has been produced, we will analyze two poems by Carmen Faustino, “Punany” and “Estado de libido”, from her first solo book Estado de libido ou poesias de prazer e cura (2020). This analytical reading aims to strengthen the visibility of literary works produced by black women who, through eroticism, are occupying the literary scene and creating new forms of (self)representation and self-appropriation.