REIMAGINANDO A HERANÇA AFRICANA EM CONTOS

Abstract

This article aims to present a critical study of selected short stories by Mae Beata de Yemonja (1931-2017), author of Historias que a minha avo contava (2004) and Caroco de Dende (2008). In her work, the writer engages in literary representations of symbolic elements derived from African cultures and reconfigured in Brazil, understood as a diasporic territory for black subjects. The tropes of this reimagined and recreated Africa unveil the cultural agency of a storyteller who deals with culture as a strategy of survival in contexts marked by a history of racism and intolerance towards African-derived traditions.