Uma literatura ainda menor: escritos indígenas para menores leitores(as) no Brasil

Abstract

Starting from a survey of “indian” representations aimed towards an audience of Brazilian children and young adults and created by non-natives during the 20th century, the thesis evaluates those representations as a colonial heritage that promoted an amalgamation of indigenous peoples and individuals in the symbolic place of childhood, straining them to existences isolated from the adult reality. Considering that a significant part of the contemporary indigenous literature published in Brazil is targeted towards a reading audience also made of children and young adults, the research understands such production as a tactical act that allowed a breakthrough of indigenous authorship in the national scene. This act, conjoined with the concept of minor literature proposed by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, instigates the thought of an even minor literature when we consider the contemporary indigenous literature aimed to an audience of children and young adults as the literature of a minority written in a major language, but directed to readers still in their formative years. In this sense, bringing together the deleuzo-guattarian concept and the presence of indigenous peoples in Latin America, as well as considering the portal sculpted by the Quichua José Kondori for the San Lorenzo de Carangas Church, still in the first half of the 18th century, as the result of a minor artistic work, the thesis dislocates the concept conceived by the two French philosophers from the modernized city of Prague lived by Franz Kafka to the colonial city of Potosí and, afterwards, to the Brazilian literary scene. After formulating the critical-theoretical notion that the research is built upon, the work was directed towards the debate concerning indigenous authorship. Reaffirming Akirío Boróro Kejéwu, better known as Tiago Marques Aipobureu, as the precursor of contemporary indigenous authorships, as well as Marçal Tupã-Y, Mário Juruna and Ailton Krenak, the study investigates the matter of writing in the autobiographical vein done by indigenous individuals and the relationship between the indigenous contemporary literature and the Indigenous Movement in Brazil. Finally, through readings that highlight indigenous experiences as narrated in works like O índio aviador (Marcos Terena and Ateneia Feijó, 1994), Irakisu: o menino criador (Renê Kithãulu, 2002), Xerekó Arandu: a morte de Kretã (Olívio Jekupé, 2002), Oré awé roiru’a ma – Todas as vezes que dissemos adeus (Kaká Werá, 2002), Meu lugar no mundo (Sulamy Katy, 2005) e Kurumĩ guaré no coração da Amazônia (Yaguarê Yamã, 2007), considerations about children’s and young adult literature as a powerful instrument to promote the visibility of a variety of indigenous communities and to establish the authorship of these groups in contemporary Brazil are made.