Life and Death Pacts

an Ethical Reflection in Times of Barbarism

Abstract

The article performs a critical reading of “A gente combinamos de não morrer”, short story of the antology Olhos d’água (2014), by Conceição Evaristo. The aim of this study was to analyze how violence influences the contemporary forms of life of the characters in the narrative in line to the history of our slave and colonial past. These are deeply traumatic pains that have not been properly worked out and, therefore, overcome. We seek to problematize the relationship between the ethics of life and literary creation, based on an interest in gender issues and Afro-descendant collective memories. This allowed us to highlight the ways in which the memories of black slavery are manifested in the narrative, leading the bodies of the characters to stage genders and to practice violence in the constitution of their identities.