Mirrors of the myth in Alma da África

the post-colonial metafiction in Antonio Olinto’s trilogy

Abstract

Alma da África (OLINTO, 2007a, 2007b, 2007c), written by Antonio Olinto (1919 – 2009), Brazilian author from Minas Gerais, focuses the female experience in the process of decolonization and redemocratization of Africa. This work analyzes Olinto’s trilogy as historiographic metafiction, a concept view by Hutcheon in Poética do Pósmodernismo (1991) in a study on the archetypal presence which expands the symbolic understanding in the prose, as stated in Meletínski theory in Os arquétipos literários (2015). In A Casa da Água, we see a novel that problematizes the reterritorialization of the diaspora’s subject, from the return of Mariana’s family to the Africa of her ancestors. In O Rei de Keto, the Afro-Brazilians’ saga is interrupted by a central figure for the understanding of the tribal matriarchy, the market’s woman, presented by the protagonist Abionan in her dreams of retraditionalization. The challenges of redemocratization and the emergence of a new and hybrid identity are revealed by Mariana Ilufemi’s political journey in Trono de Vidro. To summarize, through an analysis of the reflections of the Orisha’s mythology on Olinto’s prose, this work calls attention to the challenging character of her feminine archetype, expressed by the defiant action of the African matriarch in Alma da África (2007a, 2007b, 2007c).