“We ain’t Gonna Die”

Confrontation, Resistance, and Renegotiation in the Writing of Conceição Evaristo

Abstract

Conceição Evaristo’s writing is marked by themes which are still marginalized not only by hegemonic culture, but also by the literary canon, as she writes about the condition of black women in Brazil. In addition, her writing also depicts the daily language of subaltern groups, often positioned in the margins of hegemonic discourse. In this sense, this article investigates some of the paths of struggle and resistance taken by Conceição Evaristo to become a writer. For this, Evaristo’s statements and interviews about her biography as well as her perceptions regarding the exclusion of the presence, language, and customs of blacks in Brazilian society will be analyzed. Through her writing, Evaristo seeks to confront the promotion of a made-up universality, which has attempted to outline what it means to be Brazilian by erasing the contributions of African cultures in Brazil. Besides, Conceição Evaristo challenges such universality in Literature and in its consumption, once the endorsement of universal patterns of literary craft takes the specificities of the literary work of women, and mainly the ones of black women, for granted. Therefore, this research aims to understand the way Conceição Evaristo uses her writing to re-signify the role of women of color when confronting the stereotypes produced by a so-called universal literature, and when fighting black people’s invisibility as well. Thus, Evaristo’s writing is used as a tool to renegotiate the cultural spaces of difference and marginality in which Afro-Brazilian women are singled out, for her writing enables the positioning of such women in the contemporary world beyond their subalternity.