Literatura Abẹ̀bẹ̀: abordagem teórico-crítica e metodológica negrorreferenciada das obras O olho mais azul e Deus ajude essa criança de Toni Morrison

Abstract

This thesis aimed to present a theoretical-critical and methodological black referenced approach called Abèbè Literature, which attempted to contribute to the access and reading part of the collection published by Toni Morrison, proposing insubordination and insurrection as existential categories and interpretive keys for the analysis of this complex and diverse literary collection. For this purpose, two out of eleven novels, written by Morrison, were thought as corpora. They are: The Bluest Eye and God Help the Child, corresponding to the first and last published novels. The selected characters were, respectively: Pecola Breedlove, Pauline Breedlove; Claudia MacTeer; Bride and Sweetness. The abèbè was thought of as a founding symbology in the uninterrupted attempt to organise the fight. As a research problem we asked: What elements, characteristics and traits are present in the works: The Bluest Eye and God Help the Child, which point to the possibility of these narratives as Abèbè Literature? As objectives we listed, one as a more general order: elaborate the notion of Abèbè Literature as a theoretical-critical and methodological approach to read the works of Toni Morrison: The Bluest Eye and God Help the Child. And of a specific order: i) we sought to map the elements, characteristics and traces that are present in the works: The Bluest Eye and God Help the Child which point to the possibility of these narratives being configured as Abẹ̀bẹ̀ Literature. ii) systematise the characteristics of Abèbè Literature, mapping from the identity construction of the five characters already mentioned; iii) identify, from the theoretical-critical and methodological Abèbè Literature approach, how the processes of identity construction of the chosen characters occur and iv) examine the ways in which some selected characters internalize the ideology of whiteness and adopt it as a standard of beauty and others make blackness a shield against white supremacy. To support this research, a tripod was designed based on the contributions of black-diasporic literary theory and criticism, black feminism and psychology and psychoanalysis from a black perspective. It should also be noted that the methodology used to carry out the investigation was based on black feminist criticism using the crafting of quilts (hooks, 2019) based on the methodological challenge of “putting pieces together” (ALVES, 2021), since the final wish was that the voices and experiences of the mentioned characters would be configured as a complex and sophisticated kaleidoscopic, with the aim of better evaluating the learning shared by them. The results revealed that Abèbè Literature conceived the literary collection produced by black women in the diaspora as possibilities for escaping routes and evasions in the various attempts at annihilation proposed by racism and pointing out possible paths against such processes. Knowing the demands faced by the characters, as well as accessing a multitude of stories experienced by them, was what led to the elaboration of such a proposal. A literature that is based on ancestral references. Finally, this literary production has the potential to announce and point out the pitfalls that are always present in the existential journeys of black women and in their processes of identity construction, unlocking the paths, especially at identity crossroads: moments of/for self-knowledge; self-rejection; self-loathing; self-acceptance; self-disclosure; self-sabotage; self-care; self-love; self-healing and self-actualization.