Maria Firmina dos Reis, decoloniality and the abolitionist writing in the nineteenth century Maranhão Press

Abstract

Maria Firmina dos Reis, decoloniality and the abolitionist writing in the nineteenth century Maranhão Press

This article analyzes the tale “A escrava” by Maria Firmina dos Reis, published in Revista Maranhense, no. 3, 1887, by means of a decolonial reading. The tale addresses the issue of black enslavement from the perspective of the enslaved subject, thus, questioning the modern/colonial world system even during the post-independence in Brazil. I use the decolonial approach to reflect on how Firmina puts into question the hierarchy of race and gender as a structuring element of both colonization and enslavement, and, above all, as she, in the pages of the Maranhão press, struggled against the logic of coloniality and its material, epistemic and symbolic implications.