CALL FOR PAPERS REVISTA DE LITERATURA, HISTÓRIA E MEMÓRIA V. 21, N. 38, 2025
The Literature, History and Memory Journal, ISSN 1983-1498, Qualis B1, linked to the Postgraduate Program in Language and Literature at the State University of Western Paraná (UNIOESTE), which is published every six months, has an open call for original and unpublished articles for its next edition (v. 21, n. 38, 2025).
In each of its editions, the journal consists of two parts: a DOSSIER with a defined theme, as well as another SECTION, in rolling submission, entitled “Research in Language and Literature in the Latin American context and Literature, Teaching and Culture”, which brings together several articles from research and studies in Literature.
Dossier: “Who's talking?” fictional representations of Afro-descendants in Brazilian literature
The theme of Afro-descendants in Brazil and their representation in literature, in a broad sense, is a subject on which there is much to discuss, research and review, considering the current emergence of literary expressions concerning the voice of the excluded. Brazil bears the marks of three different ethnic groups: the indigenous, the white and the black, and it is notorious that the academy, due to the Western canon prevalence, has shown an axiomatic inclination towards Europe.
There is a multifaceted perspective on the black individual: whether the subject is written by a white writer during the period of slavery, therefore enslaved, or after being freed, after 1888. On the other hand, it could be a black writer who tackles the subject at any time, before or after the Golden Law, in either prose or verse. The key point, to quote Zilá Bernd, would be whether it is literature about black people or by black people, before or after the end of slavery in Brazil, realizing that, to a large extent, racism has become the key point in the relationship between oppressor and oppressed.
Nowadays, in the 21st century, the expressions of minorities are being noticed and the history is being seen from below: the marginalized and the revisionism are in the spotlight. However, racism is present in Brazilian daily life in the most distinct degrees; and the rise of the extreme right-wing discourse, of white superiority, has never been so evident before in the history of this country.
It's clear that, in this understanding, and taking the representation of Afro-descendants in Brazilian literature as a motto, there is a mosaic of scenes, situations and oddity that borders on the infinite: from ugliness to bestiality. In any case, despite the inferiority attributed to black people before, during and after slavery in Brazil, they populated Brazilian territory.
Scholars on the subject point to a plural view of this ethnic group in the country. Seen as the other, there are speeches in favor, others against, as well as, eventually, victimhood. Prejudices and stereotypes are widespread in Brazilian literature, pointing to enslaved people who do not fade away with the advent of freedom. Rather, and with such care, and always so much, the presence of the black people in the national literary production, even after being freed, continues to be a cliché, a version about, which will last until the threshold of this century. Note that this is not the exception, but the rule.
If the black, while enslaved, had been a commodity of the master, and had not aroused greater curiosity on the part of the intellectuals, after they had been set free, people began to talk about them more and in a different way. They had been treated as incapable, unable to feel pain and mischievous; a people marked by prejudice.
Thus, what we intend to present here are some literary representations, statements by and about black people in poetry and prose, by black and white writers focusing on ethnicity at different times: during slavery and after the Golden Law.
In order to promote the production of groups considered to be minorities, this dossier, in this submissions call, proposes to open up space for works that deal with the analysis, thematic discussion of the discursive expressions and representations of the literature of the Afro-descendant, of black male and female literature, treated in prose and verse; that denotes prejudice or belonging, that brings up the black universe in Brazil. To this end, theorists such as Bernd, Barreto, Bastide, Coutinho, Cuti, Dalcastagné, Dionísio, Eliana A Cruz, Esteves, Gildeci, Fanon, Faustino, Ianni, Itamar, Mignolo, Moura, Munanga, Sharpe, Sodré, Tenório, Weinhardt and many others are brought up.
Organizers: Gildeci de Oliveira Leite (UNEB/CNPq) and Wagner de Souza (UNIOESTE).
Submissions: Until July 31st, 2025.
