Deep Waters: Shared Aspects Among The Literatures of French Guiana, Suriname, and Brazil

Abstract

This article aims to reflect on the similarities in contemporary literary production in the far north of South America, specifically in French Guiana, Suriname, and the state of Amapá in Brazil. The reflection is based on the understanding that the persistence of the image of slave ships in literary works reveals the connection between the region, its historical, cultural, and literary similarities, regardless of the authors' awareness of this issue or their desire to promote a transnational or cross-border dialogue. To illustrate this discussion, il will be analyzed texts by three writers, the short story “Bois d’ébène: des racines de l’oubli à la résistance éternelle” (2010) by the Guianese Marie-Goerge Thebia, the novel Tutuba: The Girl from the Slaveship Leusden (2013) by the Surinamese Cynthia McLeod, and the poems “África amiga” (2021) and “A saga dos negros” (2018) by the poet from Amapá, Negra Áurea. The poetics of Relation, as formulated by Glissant (2021), and the Decolonial feminism by Vergès (2020) will serve as the theoretical basis for the proposed analysis.