A MAMÃE FOI TRABALHAR ONDE?

PERSPECTIVAS DA RELAÇÃO DE TRABALHO E MATERNAGEM NEGRA EM A MÃE QUE VOAVA

Abstract

Starting from the recognition that the mothering experiences of Black people have historically been anchored in colonialist and Eurocentric narratives within the context of Brazilian literature, we cannot overlook the impacts of these perspectives on the constructions of our subjectivities. Whether through stigmatization or the nullification of experiences, there is a deliberate failure in these productions that insists on crystallizing Blackness in places of impossibilities for construction, particularly regarding effective networks of affection within parental relationships. However, literary movements aimed at destabilizations, fissures, and ruptures with these images are being created, such as in the work A Mãe que Voava, which tells the story of little Alice who watches her mother work both inside and outside the home, relying on a crucial factor: the possibility of return. The experience of work for Black women outside their homes is specifically supported by the impossibility of return and, consequently, the distancing from their own families. The book offers us other possibilities rooted in affection, presence, and the existence of a Black motherhood that subverts and transgresses a hegemony of whiteness, updating our perceptions of Black parenthoods and pointing to the complexity of our experiences.