Comunità afrodiscendenti, letterature e configurazioni identitarie: un dialogo afroatlantico tra Brasile e Portogallo

Abstract

This article aims to reflect on the current discussion about the terminologies that define the Afro-descendant presence and identity in the Portuguese and Brazilian literary context: literatura negra, literatura afrodescendente, literatura afro-lusitana/portuguesa/brasileira. In order to acknowledge the process of invisibilisation of Afro-descendant voices in societies marked by the legacies of European colonialism it is important to name what has been removed and marginalised, creating new identity categories. By analysing similarities, differences and influences between Brazil and Portugal, we will try to understand how these categories are assumed and discussed by authors and critics. This discussion can stimulate an Afro-Atlantic dialogue which can both foster the decolonisation and the rewriting of national literary canons in order to open up spaces for reflection on common and transnational dynamics.