Between the slave order and modernity: Minha Vida de Menina, by Helena Morley

• Grant number: 18/10986-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: September 01, 2018
• End date: August 31, 2019
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Literature - Brazilian Literature
• Principal Investigator: Fabio Cesar Alves
• Grantee: Felipe Veríssimo Pereira
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This project intends to investigate the author's ambivalent perspective about the black characters in the published diary "Minha vida de menina" (1942), written by Helena Morley. Through this ambivalence is possible to analyze how the protagonist transits between pro-hegemonic and counter-ideological viewpoints about the slavery, which had been recently abolished in that time. The aim is to understand how Helena stylized a historical reality between an archaic-slaver universe and a liberal-modern one while she was writing her diaries based on the seigniorial logic as well as its symbolic reversion in the narrated city of Diamantina, which was living a period of social levelling and community bonds enhancement.