“Quarto de despejo”: writing as estoicism

Abstract

First of all, paraphrasing Virginia Woolf, it is essential to ask where women’s space in literature was at the beginning of the last century. But, if we consider the context of a black Woman living in a Brazilian slum, the perspective is much more arduous. The present essay intends to demonstrate, much more than the difficulties of Carolina Maria de Jesus as a writer, how her effort to write represents an actual act of resistance in a world surrounded by misery, criminality, and exclusion. In a world where lives are either wasted or despised by social policies. The everyday war for survival reduces the human condition to the same level as that of the animals living in the same environment, due to disputes over food leftovers. Sometimes, the battle for survival can lead to a weakening of the spirit and the will to live, as in existential nihilism. Thus, her simple but profound language in writing surpasses the narrow limits of the slum, serving as a valid instrument of recognition and self-preservation in the face of inequality and prejudice.