Luzia and Ponciá Vicêncio: A reflection on the figurative elements river and barro

Uma reflexão sobre os elementos figurativos rio e barro

Abstract

This article is based on the hypothesis that the fictional narrative entitled Ponciá Vicêncio, by Conceição Evaristo, provides elements that allow us to understand the multicultural mechanisms that contributed to the formation of Afro-Brazilian identities in our country and presents the results of the experience of the discipline Advanced Topics IV of Creative Writing,  taken in 2021 at the Federal University of Juiz de Fora. The final work also gave rise to the fictional short story, Luzia. In this sense, the purpose is to establish a comparison or an approximation of the short story with Evaristo's novel by proposing a dialogue between the two texts. In this sense, this study associates the figurative elements river and clay in the presented narratives. It also seeks to demonstrate the important presence of the river as a setting for the narratives and the power it exerts in the lives of the characters Luzia and Ponciá Vicêncio. The importance of clay, used as a raw material for making household utensils, functional objects, artistic objects or playful artifacts for parents who do not have the resources to buy toys, is also addressed in a different way. As a theoretical basis, we will use the assumptions of Silveira (2006), Arruda (2008), Evaristo (2017) and Almeida and Passos (2018).

Keywords: Conceição Evaristo. Ponciá Vicêncio. Rio. Clay (mud).