Livro ilustrado negrocentrado: reflexões a partir dos acervos infantojuvenis dos Quilombos Editoriais

Abstract

The main objective of this work is to study part of the collection of Quilombos Editoriais (Fabiane Cristine Rodrigues and Luiz Henrique Silva de Oliveira, 2020), understood as Brazilian publishing houses that produce, publish and publicize literature centered on blackness in the form of books. Transcending geopolitical borders, in a movement against the colonial structure (Aimé Cesaire in AVILÉS, 2016), Quilombos Editoriais are consolidated as networks of sociability that act in the production of epistemological subsidies for the understanding of blackness in Brazilian soil. Within the scope of this research, our attention will focus on illustrated books (Suzy LEE, 2012; MORAES, 2019; SALLISBURY and STYLES, 2013) catalogued as Afro-Brazilian or Black-Brazilian Literature and understood as part of the country's children's and young adult literature (Débora Cristina de ARAUJO, 2018; Maria Anória de Jesus OLIVEIRA, 2018; Sonia ROSA, 2022). By articulating concepts such as Black-Brazilian Literature (CUTI, 2010), Afro-Brazilian Art (CONDURU, 2007; MUNANGA, 2000; LODY, 2005 and others), Corporeality (Azoilda Loretto da Trindade, 2006) and Performativity (BHABHA, 1998) with discussions on the authorship of illustrated books (LEE, 2012; MORAES, 2019; SALLISBURY and STYLES, 2013), we seek to answer the question: is it currently possible to identify black-centered illustrated books that, in addition to the black theme and context, have black illustrators as authors (or co-authors)? To identify the authorship of the written text and the illustrations, we put into practice an exercise of heteroidentification (JESUS, 2021) as a strategy to identify the phenotypic characteristics of the authors. In short, the analyses carried out show a certain discrepancy between the considerable increase in black writers in illustrated books over the last few decades and the insignificant presence of black illustrators in these works.