Carolina Maria de Jesus: Brazil's black interpreter

• Grant number: 25/03237-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: July 01, 2025
• End date: November 30, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History - History of Brazil
• Principal Investigator: Josianne Francia Cerasoli
• Grantee: Rafaela Panzeri Rodrigues
• Host Institution: Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas (IFCH). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The source of this project is the work Diário de Bitita (1986), by Carolina Maria de Jesus (1914-1977). The section covers Minas Gerais and São Paulo and the period from 1914, the birth of the author and the beginning of the narrative of the text worked on here, to 1986, the date of publication of the first Brazilian edition of Diário de Bitita. In this sense, the aim is to debate the changes and continuities that took place in this scenario, thinking about urban reform and land reform, the issue of the cost of living and other facets of the project of Brazil drawn up by De Jesus. In addition, the focus is on the inseparability between the author's personal trajectory and her production, seeking to establish De Jesus as an active agent in the making of history, this thinking of man in time, and literary art. Thus, in her multiplicity, Carolina Maria de Jesus built a very specific narrative of Brazil in her canon. The focus here, therefore, is on her place as an "interpreter of Brazil", an "outsider within" interpreter, who will be analyzed and unraveled through Diário de Bitita.