O tema e o problema: memória e esquecimento nas pesquisas acadêmicas sobre Maria Firmina dos Reis (1987 – 2019)

Abstract

Maria Firmina dos Reis was a Black teacher and author who published her main text in 1859. Celebrated in her time, she was forgotten and excluded from the literary historiography of most of the 20th century, until 1975, when her novel Úrsula was published in a facsimile edition and a biography was organized by José Nascimento Morais Filho. From that moment on, it is possible to notice an increasing number of studies that deal with the author, addressing different aspects of her life and work. These studies are the object of analysis of this research. Our goal is to understand where the demand for this author’s memory in the academic circles comes from, as well as to analyze how the speeches and memories about Maria Firmina and her writings were formed. To achieve this goal, 29 thesis and dissertations, published between 1987 and 2019, that discuss the author and her work, in a direct or transversal way, were selected. These researches were questioned in three main points: who, why, and how they evoked and (re)build the memory of Maria Firmina dos Reis. We identified approaches shared between those researches, mainly related to the the anti-slavery theme in her work, the humanization of the black characters, the question of black authorship and afro-brazilian literature, as well the denunciation of the women’s condition in 19th century Maranhão. With this research, we seek to expand the body of studies on Maria Firmina dos Reis in a critical perspective regarding the uses of the past and the duty of memory from the analyzes and results of these examined theses and dissertations, offering a look not compromised with the author's sacralization.