XVII Congress of the Brazilian Studies Association

De-Essentializing Saudade: Unassuaged Longing Under Black Brazilian Feminist Lenses

• In Event: Towards a Genealogy of Luso-Afro-Brazilian Saudade

Abstract

There is no direct translation for the word “saudade,” a uniquely Brazilian (and to some extent, Continental Portuguese) term. Saudade resonates with potent emotions of melancholy and nostalgia. This turn of phrase evokes great affectivity, an unassuaged longing or yearning. Few scholars have explored the masculinist and paternalistic constructs in its etymology and the extent to which saudade foregrounds Brazilian history and ontology. As a concept, saudade is anchored not only in Brazil’s colonial history, the institution of slavery and its (re)production, but also in Black Brazilian womanhood. The land itself becomes a site for sensual speculation and despoliation (specifically the Bahian Recôncavo and the Sertâo). Scholarship has ignored the word’s conveyance of racialized hierarchies as well as the gendering of its geography. I will use as a lens Sueli Carneiro’s Dispositivo De Racialidade and Conceição Evaristo’s concept of Escrevivência in Poncia Vicencia to talk about the intersections of race and gender embedded in the concept of saudade. In my talk, I explore the power of Carneiro’s and Evaristo’s works, words, sounds, and images not only influence meaning-making, but also effectuate powerful world-making. I consider the entryways, bio-politics, and genealogies of Black feminist theory and aesthetics in Brazil. Also, I interrogate the layers of ferocious dis-possession in Brazil, as it is embodied in the term saudade.

Author

• Irline Francois, Goucher College