The Reconstruction of History from Margin to Center in Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing and Eliana Alves Cruz’s Água de Barrela
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26512/cerrados.v32i61.45872Keywords:
lacos de familia, maternidade, migração, pós-colonialidade, revisão históricaAbstract
Although immigrant literature scholarship emphasizes generational conflicts, little has been done to intersect questions of race, gender, and migration, which is pivotal to expanding our comprehension of postcolonial studies. Whereas some taboo topics, such as the Africans’ involvement in the slave trade and the myth of racial democracy in Brazil, have been seldom investigated in postcolonial and diaspora studies, novels such as Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing and Eliana Alves Cruz’s Agua de Barrela reshape obfuscated and silenced parts of history. These novels depict generational traumas that pass on family members while simultaneously showing how resistance has always been part of black people’s daily lives, primarily through storytelling. This article argues that through the act of remembering, uncovering, (re)claiming, and sharing these stories, characters can strengthen bonds with each other and create the basis for historical revision.
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