Overshadowing and construction of a unique black intellectual in Psychology: Virginia Bicudo between acknowledgements, pseudonyms and footnotes

Abstract

This ethnographic case study describes and analyzes the recovery process of Virgínia Bicudo in Brazilian Psychology. Based on the contributions of symbolic interactionism, we propose here an analysis of the citation patterns of Virgínia Bicudo, among the hundreds of texts with some reference to this author. Most do not consider her texts to be authorial and her name appears in allusions, as a pseudonym, acknowledgments or footnotes. It can be said, therefore, that there is no critical reception of her work. In these appearances, biographical representation prevails and, in the last 10 years, the erasure of the author. The way she appears reinforces the myth of the unique black intellectual and removes her from the field, obscuring the reception of her work, through the process of overshadowing. As a conclusion, it is indicated that, to combat the effects of epistemic racism and, consequently, the full recognition of authorship, it is necessary, among other initiatives, citation policies that consider, in theoretical rigor, the work, that is, its reception criticism in the institutionalized field of knowledge.