Event and Singularity: As mulheres do Tijucopapo [The Women of Tijucopapo], the Contemporary Historical Novel of the Black Diaspora

This article focuses on the analysis of Marilene Felinto’s novel As mulheres do Tijucopapo [The Women of Tijucupapo]. First published in 1982, this novel significantly represents contemporary Black historical romance in Brazil. The narrative, which suggests an endogenous diaspora, unfolds from São Paulo to Tijuco, implicitly referencing the battle of Tijucopapo that occurred in Pernambuco on April 24, 1646. The impassioned narrator Rísia presents a fragmented critical exploration of the identities that establish “borders of exclusion” (Hall) and constructs a future-oriented view of time that opens new existential domains. I draw upon the concepts of “curved time” and “spiral” as articulated by Leda Maria Martins, as well as the notion of “anachronism” by Georges Didi-Huberman and intertwine them with “event” and “singularity” as proposed by Gilles Deleuze.

KEYWORDS:
Historical novel; Diaspora and black literature; Curved time; Anachronism; Event and singularity