Masculinidades negras e seus desdobramentos nos campos das afetividades e violência na literatura afro-brasileira por meio do romance O Avesso da Pele (2020) de Jeferson Tenório

Abstract

This research is based in the relationship between hegemonic masculinity and black masculinity. Hegemonic masculinity is the standard masculinity that can be exemplified through the image of the white, heterosexual, patriarchal man, whose values are based on virility, strength and power. For the hegemonic masculinity to exercise its power and maintain its high social status, it will rely on the marginalization and devaluation of black masculinity. Thus, black masculinity, that can perform the values of hegemonic masculinity, will present specific crossings due to the racial factor. Thus, the affetivities of a black man and the violence against his existence are highly permeated by the impacts of racism and values imposed by hegemonic masculinity. Therefore, the present work proposes to carry out an analysis of how violence and affetivities work in the creation of male black subjectivity through the reading of the novel The Dark Side of the Skin (2020) by Jeferson Tenório, besides addressing his representations in the book from theoretical texts of the area. As a result of the analysis, it was observed that origin relationships play an essential role in how black men develop and deal with their affective relationships. Parental abandonment, a reality of black male experience, has an important role in how the trauma of absence affects relationships throughout life. Interracial relationship becomes more of an issue in the life of black men because it is a relationship seen as a taboo, and also a challenge to the virility of white men. Unlike interracial relationships, the black-centered relationship is not seen as taboo. Still, racism plays a major intensifying force in the traumas of a black couple, as observed through the characters Henrique and Martha. The black couple has other challenges that differ from those imposed in interracial relationships regarding trauma overcoming, demonstrating that to have a healthy conviviality, it is necessary to overcome the traumas. Violence will become something constant in the life of black men and it may occur due to hyper-sexualization of their body, but also due to the violence of racism itself and through the state’s necropolitics. This work highlights the importance of expanding studies and debates about the complexities of black masculinity, highlighting the primordial character of the novel as a voice for a neglected experience, besides denouncing the violence in which these bodies are targeted.