African Diasporic Connections in the Americas: Toni Morrison in Brazil

Abstract

Admired throughout the world, Toni Morrison’s powerful voice resounds in special ways in Brazil, where she conducted part of her research for Beloved –a novel she considered an interrogation about the legacy of slavery in countries like Brazil and the USA. Initially labeled «politically correct» by Brazilian media, her works have finally achieved great visibility in the twenty-first century thanks to translations, a wide readership and increasing academic attention. In fact, Afro-Brazilian women writers, literary critics, historians, and cultural workers have reached unprecedented recognition in recent decades, along with a belated embrace of Morrison and other Black authors. This essay relies on Black feminist, diasporic and decolonial thinking to investigate how Morrison’s writing connects with the ongoing process of racial awareness and empowerment in Brazil, as well as with the writer Conceição Evaristo.