A IDENTIDADE DO SILÊNCIO EM PONCIÁ VICÊNCIO, DE CONCEIÇÃO EVARISTO

Abstract

This essay analyzes the identity of silence in the trajectory of the protagonist of the novel Ponciá Vicêncio, by Conceição Evaristo, understanding it not only as an absence of speech, but as a narrative and symbolic device. The narrative highlights how silence, initially a mark of the male figures that surround Ponciá — father, grandfather, and husband —, is appropriated and resignified by her, transforming it into a constitutive element of her subjectivity. From an intersectional feminist critical perspective and studies on black literature, the work demonstrates how Evaristo destabilizes the myth of the “strong” and resilient black woman, by presenting a character marked by introspection, vulnerability, and resistance. The analysis also highlights how the work reflects on the historicity of gender and race relations in Brazil, evidencing the aesthetic and political power of Evaristo’s writing, which claims for black women the right to complex subjectivity, silence, and full humanity.