A memória da escravidão em The Longest Memory (1994) e Feeding The Ghosts (1997), de Fred D’Aguiar
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Data
2018-02-02
Autores
Alves, Elis Regina Fernandes
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Editor
Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp)
Resumo
Analisam-se os romances The Longest Memory (1994) e Feeding the Ghosts (1997), do anglo-guianense Fred D’Aguiar, sob a perspectiva da memória da escravidão. Os dois romances tematizam a memória da escravidão em momentos distintos, construindo uma espécie de panorama da escravidão negra transatlântica, desde a captura de escravos em África e a passagem intermédia, até a escravidão nas plantations norte-americanas nos séculos XVIII e XIX. A história da escravidão negra evidencia o peso da escravidão para a economia política da Europa e do Novo Mundo. Mas, sua memória tem sido relatada com base na visão do senhor de escravos, e não do escravo. Quando ficcionalizada, a memória da escravidão parece querer revisitar os legados deixados por esta barbárie. Diversos são os tipos de memórias que relembram, discutem, denunciam a escravidão e, neste sentido, este trabalho analisou, com base, principalmente, no conceito de memória coletiva de Halbwachs (2006), as memórias coletivas da escravidão, além de verificar como a memória histórica da escravidão é construída e quais memórias são descartadas para a composição desta memória histórica, que se torna oficializada. Evidenciou-se como o mesmo fato poder ser rememorado de formas diferentes, de acordo com as ideologias de quem as lembra, de modo a deixar claro como a História da escravidão é contada de forma enviesada, unilateral, pois que considera as memórias da elite detentora do poder e não dos sujeitos escravos. As memórias coletivas dos sujeitos escravos não são levadas em consideração ao se oficializar a história e, assim, a memória da escravidão parece estar sendo minimizada pela história e é a ficção quem parece não querer deixar-nos esquecer de seu legado, o que se evidencia nos dois romances analisados que buscam dar voz ao escravo, mesmo que essa voz acabe se perdendo na confecção da memória histórica dos eventos relativos à sua escravização.
The novels The Longest Memory (1994) and Feeding the Ghosts (1997), by the Anglo-Guianian Fred D'Aguiar, are analyzed from the perspective of the memory of slavery. The two novels thematize the memory of slavery at different times, building a kind of panorama of transatlantic black slavery, from the capture of slaves in Africa and the middle passage, to slavery on the American plantations in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The history of black slavery shows the weight of slavery for the political economy of Europe and the New World. But its memory has been told from the point of view of the master of slaves, and not of the slave. When fictionalized, the memory of slavery seems to want to revisit the legacies left by this barbarism. There are several types of memories that recall, discuss, denounce slavery and, in this sense, this work analyzed, mainly, the concept of collective memory of Halbwachs (2006), the collective memories of slavery, as well as to verify how the historical memory of slavery is built and what memories are discarded for the composition of this historical memory, which ones become official. It has been shown how the same fact can be recalled in different ways, according to the ideologies of the one who remembers them, so as to make it clear how the History of slavery is counted in a biased, unilateral way, since it considers the memories of the holding elite of power and not of the slave subjects. The collective memories of the slave subjects are not taken into account when the history is made official, and thus the memory of slavery seems to be being minimized by history, and it is fiction who does not seem to want to let us forget its legacy, which is evidenced in these two analyzed novels that seek to give voice to the slave, even if that voice ends up being lost in the making of the historical memory of the events related to his/her enslavement.
The novels The Longest Memory (1994) and Feeding the Ghosts (1997), by the Anglo-Guianian Fred D'Aguiar, are analyzed from the perspective of the memory of slavery. The two novels thematize the memory of slavery at different times, building a kind of panorama of transatlantic black slavery, from the capture of slaves in Africa and the middle passage, to slavery on the American plantations in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The history of black slavery shows the weight of slavery for the political economy of Europe and the New World. But its memory has been told from the point of view of the master of slaves, and not of the slave. When fictionalized, the memory of slavery seems to want to revisit the legacies left by this barbarism. There are several types of memories that recall, discuss, denounce slavery and, in this sense, this work analyzed, mainly, the concept of collective memory of Halbwachs (2006), the collective memories of slavery, as well as to verify how the historical memory of slavery is built and what memories are discarded for the composition of this historical memory, which ones become official. It has been shown how the same fact can be recalled in different ways, according to the ideologies of the one who remembers them, so as to make it clear how the History of slavery is counted in a biased, unilateral way, since it considers the memories of the holding elite of power and not of the slave subjects. The collective memories of the slave subjects are not taken into account when the history is made official, and thus the memory of slavery seems to be being minimized by history, and it is fiction who does not seem to want to let us forget its legacy, which is evidenced in these two analyzed novels that seek to give voice to the slave, even if that voice ends up being lost in the making of the historical memory of the events related to his/her enslavement.
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Palavras-chave
Memória, Escravidão, Fred D'Aguiar, Feeding the Ghosts, The Longest Memory, Memory, Slavery, Fred D'Aguiar, Feeding the Ghosts, The Longest Memory