Corpo-Kalunga: fluxos memorialísticos e identitários em Um defeito de cor, de Ana Maria Gonçalves

Abstract

In Um defeito de cor (2006), by the Brazilian writer Ana Maria Gonçalves, the memoirs’ trajectory of Kehinde “Luiza” is depicted as a legacy to her son, Omotunde “Luiz Gama”. Luiza’s grieving process is driven by her body memory. The narrator-protagonist, a former slave, reveals to the reader a quest for herself through the nuances of an endless search for her son. Thus, this paper’s goal is to analyze the memorialistic constructions woven by the narrative voice of Kehinde, as well as the identity (re)constructions of the protagonist in flux and in dialogue with these memorial marks. The analysis is based on Abdias Nascimento (2016; 2019), Luciana Brito (2018), and Mônica Lima e Souza (2008), among others, theorists who promote dialogues about the African Diaspora and slavery in Brazil. The research is based on Leda Maria Martins (2003), Paul Ricoeur (2007), Roland Walter (2011), among others, for the analytical category of memory. Frantz Fanon (2008), Paul Gilroy (2012), Stuart Hall (2013; 2014), and W. E. B. Du Bois (2021) were drawn on for the analytical category of identity. From the analysis undertaken, we observed that the protagonist, in her narrative flow, emerges identity crossings, a reflection of the diasporic subject's experience with multiple cultural encounters, sometimes juxtaposed and sometimes confronted. The wandering memory represents reconciliation to the loss of oneself and one's kinsmen.