De "As alegrias da maternidade" a "Fique comigo": feminismos, interseccionalidade e a questão da maternidade

Abstract

This dissertation has as object of study the works The Joys of Motherhood (Buchi Emecheta) and Stay with me (Ayòbámi Adébáyò). The aim is to analyze black female characters from the perspective of black feminist theory, intersectionality and decolonial feminism, in order to understand how issues such as gender, race and class operate in the figuration of these characters and how the opressions they face, like the imposition of motherhood, reflect the dynamics of female marginalization intensified by colonization. Therefore, using a bibliographic methodology, we sought to make a theoretical survey about the introducion of the concept of gender in the African continent, the emergence of the black feminism, as both a social and literary struggle movement, as weel as the advancement of plural feminisms, focusing on intersectionality and decolonial feminism, and imposed motherhood, to analyze the novels qualitatively. The works of authors like Oyěwùmí (2020, 2021, 2023), Beauvoir (2009), Davis (2016), hooks (2014, 2019), Kilomba (2019), Ribeiro (2017, 2018), Muhammed (2007), Lugones (2014, 2020), Bilge and Collins (2020), Crenshaw (1989, 1991), Abara (2012), Makama (2013), among other scholars, philosophers and feminist critics were used as basis to create dialogues about issues of gender, race, class and motherhood to analyze the figuration of female characters, as weel as their context. These dialogues allowed reflection about the discourses and social roles imposed on black women and how patriarcal structures persist in to mold the lives of these women. The comparison of the protagonists showed that both, despite the time difference, face similar problems, the search for motherhood initiated by Nnu Ego continues in Yejide, in a representation that the women are still trapped by discourses that define them.