1921 and a hundred years after

a few echoes of Batouala in Brazil

Abstract

In this paper we aim to discuss the echoes of the novel Batouala in Brazil, a hundred years after, highlighting the importance of this work as the first Black novel written by a Black person. Because of the publication centenary of this novel in 2021 and the important award that it received, the Goncourt Prize, we think it is meaningful to put this novel as the centre of our discussion. For these considerations, we will follow two paths. The first emphasizes the archeology of the “Francophone” literary text, in the words of Allouache (2018), highlighting the work of René Maran as a non-French author of the French langage who obtained international recognition, causing love and hate among readers of the Overseas Departments, among those in the metropolis, France, and by extension in Europe (RUBIALES, 2005). In the second path, we establish a dialogue between the novel Batouala and Brazilian literature published in the last hundred years. In this way, we are rescuing the writers who contributed to the construction of a “truly” Brazilian literature, as understood by Batouala, by Maran, “un roman véritablement nègre”. Related to this theme, there is Crooked Plough, by Itamar Vieira Júnior, that gives voice to the wretched of the earth (FANON, 2002) in this deep Brazil, among others.