Maternagem e violência em Olhos d'água, de Conceição Evaristo

Abstract

Violence and motherhood are one of the main themes proposed in the short story an-thology Olhos d'Água (2016) by the Afro-Brazilian writer Conceição Evaristo. This research aims to identify the various forms of violence against black and poor women, as well as the view on motherhood in six short stories of the collection: "Ana Davenga", "Duzu Querença", "Maria", "Quantos filhos Natalina teve?". The analysis of the stories discusses violence and mothering: the first, as a domination mechanism and survival strategy, and the second, as a rupture of the archetypical discourse that foments the image of the "good mother". The inter-pretative hypothesis is based on the perspective of Conceição Evaristo, a black writer who, in Olhos d'Água, managed to use writing to give voice to subalternized black women. The writer, in addition to breaking the silence through language, denounces through writing the erasure of the narrative of those who for a long time were excluded in society. For the substantiation of this hypothesis we will resort to the theoretical basis that addresses the strong influence of the patriarchal order: Gayatri Spivak (2010), Grada Kilomba (2019), bell hooks (2014), Angela Davis (2016), Djamila Ribeiro (2019), Sueli Carneiro (2020), Lélia Gonzalez (2018), among others. On the status of women, black women's motherhood and symbolic violence, we have as a basis the studies of Mary Del Priore (2004), Cristina Maria Teixeira Stevens (2007), Patri-cia Hill Collins (2019) and Pierre Bordieu (2014). And on the concepts of urban violence, we are based on the research of Rubem George Oliven (2010) and Jean Claude Chesnais (1999).