Pelas sendas do feminino: diáspora e exílio nas literaturas africanas de língua portuguesa

Abstract

This thesis discusses and analyzes about the exile and diaspora experiences lived by female characters present in narratives of Portuguese-speaking African women writers, with reflections subsidized by critics such as Edward Said (2003), Maria José de Queiroz (1998), Miriam Volpe (2005), Stuart Hall (1996) (2013) (2016), Avtar Brah (2005), Robin Cohen (2008), among others, whose considerations are discussed throughout the investigative work. The research demonstrates how narratives not only feed themselves on the seduction/fear exerted by departures and arrivals, as also reveal the helplessness and hopelessness caused by exile “phenomenon” according to Volpe (2005), and the (dis)enchantment and frustrations of the diaspora experiences. Focusing on the performance of female characters contributes to the construction of this large panel that is the African diaspora in contemporaneity and more particularly female diaspora. The thesis is focused, for elucidation, on literatures of the five countries represented in the corpus emphasizing the need to include feminine thought as an element of equal importancefor understanding these literatures and equating this thought to the already-discussed male perspective. The reading is centered on texts, namely: a) Sabor de maboque, novel of theAngolan writer Dulce Braga; b) „Cais do Sodré‟, „Desencanto‟, „Esmola de Merca‟ and „Thonon-le-Bains‟, short story of the Cape-Verdean writer Orlanda Amarílis; c) 15 dias de regresso, novelof the Santomean writer Olinda Beja;d) Ventos do Apocalipse, novel of the Mozambican writer Paulina Chiziane;e) Tiara, novel of the naturalized Guinean writer Filomena Embaló.The research methodology is based also in critical studies about the knowledge of the Portuguese-speaking African literatures (ABDALA JÚNIOR, 1999; AUGEL, 2007, 2014; DUARTE, Z. , 2012; FONSECA, 2004, 2008, 2012; GOMES, 1997, 2010; MACÊDO, 2003, 2008; MATA, 1995, 2007, 2008, 2010; PADILHA,1997, 2012; TUTIKIAN, 1999), among others. Beyond the concepts of diaspora and exile it operates with „insílio‟ and „desexílio‟ concepts developed by Miriam Volpe and Mario Benedetti (1985).It must be emphasized that, although the representation of feminine in the women author's writings is approached, the study does not aim to present feminism in the African context, but to understand the way women are inserted in the literary writing of these different Portuguese-speaking African countries.