Inscritura and Escrevivência in Os Corpos e Obá Contemporânea (2005) by Helena do Sul

Abstract

Brazilian literature, especially the canonical one, has historically relegated Black female characters to limiting stereotypes, such as the servile mucama or the hypersexualized mulata. These representations fail to encompass the complexity of Black women’s experiences, who, since the period of enslavement, have sustained their families while facing persistent forms of exploitation and oppression. However, by reclaiming writing, these women resignify their histories and construct narratives that break with crystallized images and reaffirm plural identities. The social novel Os corpos e Obá contemporânea (2005), by Helena do Sul, is situated within this context by addressing labor, the body, and ancestry as central elements of Black female experience. The work articulates labor memories, experiences of violence, and collective resistance, highlighting writing as a space of transgression and emancipation, as argued by Conceição Evaristo (2007; 2010; 2020) and Ana Rita Santiago (2012). In this sense, the notion of inscritura (Quadros, 2023) reinforces writing as an insurgent practice, in which the Black female body not only narrates but is inscribed into the materiality of the text. Thus, Afro-Brazilian literature asserts itself as a field of identity and political engagement, challenging power structures and promoting new forms of existence and narrativity for Black women.