Carolina Maria de Jesus' Self-Assessment and Self-Definition in the work Quarto de Despejo: diary of a favela

Abstract

The present article intends to analyze the work “Quarto de Despejo” from 1960 by Carolina Maria de Jesus from an intersectional view proposed by black feminism. With this, we aim to understand how the oppositional look is present in the work of Carolina de Jesus and how this is one of the representations of black women in this historical context. For this, we will use the categories of analysis proposed by Patricia Collins of self-assessment and self-definition of black women, because, in the work in question, we have the memories of Carolina, a black and peripheral woman who constantly assesses her life and her precarious daily life; without crashes, seeing, defining and writing the reality of your social group and, in this way, self-evaluating and self-defining in these memories. In this way, we walk to realize the transformative potential that the oppositional gaze of black women, based on their different realities and contexts, can say about themselves and their collective.