FAVELA AS A FEMALE SPACE IN CONCEIÇÃO EVARISTO AND ELIZANDRA SOUZA

Abstract

This paper looks into and compares the representation of black women in the novel Becos da Memória, by Conceição Evaristo, and the poem Favela, Mulher!, by Elizandra Souza, and notes the importance of the use of feminine figures as representative symbols of the favela — usually represented as a place of male domination, violence and exclusion versus female fragility and victimization. The paper also analyses how the literary performances of the two woman writers highlight not only the relevance of women as agents of preservation of afrodescendants memory and identity in Brazil, but also the political and cultural role played by themselves as black women and black writers coming from the margins of our white, male and elitist literary system.