The historical fiction of Eliana Alves Cruz: necropower, violence, coloniality of the body, and infectious diseases

In this article, we aim to analyze the representations of necropower, violence, coloniality of the body, and infectious diseases (such as cholera, yellow fever, smallpox and maculo), recurrent in the process of enslavement of black people. We will investigate such themes by studying the historical...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Francis Williams Brito da Conceição, Renan Cabral Paulino
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Associação Internacional de Lusitanistas 2022-09-01
Series:Veredas
Subjects:
Online Access:https://revistaveredas.org/index.php/ver/article/view/833
Description
Summary:In this article, we aim to analyze the representations of necropower, violence, coloniality of the body, and infectious diseases (such as cholera, yellow fever, smallpox and maculo), recurrent in the process of enslavement of black people. We will investigate such themes by studying the historical fiction novels Água de barrela (2018), Crime do cais do Valongo (2018a), and Nada digo de ti, que em ti não Veja (2020), written by Eliana Alves Cruz. Therefore, starting from the discussions on the various forms of coloniality, violence, and barbarism evidenced in theorists such as Agamben (2002), Bento (2018), Césaire (2020), Dalcastagnè (2008), Lugones (2019), among others, we will observe the ways in which capitalism, European colonization and modern slavery, using necropolitics, led subalternized bodies to death through normalization and regulation, by denying to these bodies basic conditions of existence, such as food, hygiene, decent work, healthcare and rest. By the end of the research, we discovered that the novels problematize and denounce the colonial wound that slavery inflicted on black people, placing them in inhumane situations both of displacement, and in the environments of exploitation.
ISSN:2183-816X