Between Blackness and Belonging

The Insurgent Writing of Carolina Maria de Jesus in Diário de Bitita

Abstract

The presence of blacks in the Brazilian literary scene has become more visible in recent decades. Although in the past this main role was more timid, especially when it comes to black women, this presence today is quite expressive. Carolina Maria de Jesus, despite of prejudice and discrimination, is one of the many Afro-descendant writers who had achieved prominence in the literary medium. Through her writing, she showed the situation of poverty, misery and exclusion she suffered during her life. Thus, this article aims to analyze the work Diário de Bitita (Bitita’s Diary, 1986), focusing on aspects such as blackness and belonging. More specifically, we sought to understand how the racial issue and the idea of belonging are addressed in the referred work, in addition to discussing how the author dealt with these issues in her childhood and adolescence. Therefore, support was sought in the theoretical contributions of Cixous (2017), Fanon (2008), Hall (2005), among others. It was observed that Carolina Maria de Jesus uses her writing as an instrument to denounce the situation of poor and, especially of black people, in the face of a society dominated by an Eurocentric conception that privileges whites over blacks. Facing the prejudice, discrimination and exclusion experienced by Bitita, she often wished to have white skin to enjoy the same rights as white people.