Anacaona – resiliência feminina à ocupação europeia no caribe: ressignificações da atuação autóctone feminina na colonização da América Latina

Abstract

Current studies on historical novels focus on the literary resignifications of figures and scenarios mentioned in traditional historiographical discourses. Many of them are being produced in the context of the Research Group “Remeanings of the past in America: reading, writing, and translation of history and fiction hybrid genres – approaches to decolonization”, associated with the Languages and Literature post- graduation program (PPGL) -Unioeste/Cascavel-PR, space in which this research is inserted, in co-supervision with UVigo/Vigo-Spain. Thus, in this thesis, we seek to prove that the fictional resignifications of the figure of Anacaona, a Taíno chief from the island of Guanahaní (named by Columbus as La Española, in 1492), reflect the actions of this native as a female figure of empowerment and confrontation in the face of colonization and Hispanic exploration in American territory. To this end, we establish approximations and divergences between historical sources – produced by Europeans at the time of the events – and the hybrid narratives of history and fiction that bring to light the figure of this native. Our objective is to highlight how this leader's resistance actions were manipulated in historiographic records, written from a European hegemonic perspective. We start from the findings that historical records about the “conquest” of America are the exclusive territory of European male discursivity, thus excluding, as much as possible, the relevance of women, especially resilient autochthones – with literature being a space for the rereadings of such characters. The hybrid narratives that give prominence to Anacaona are: Flor de oro (Anacaona, reina de Jaragua) (1860), by Francisco José Orellana; Anacaona y las tormentas (1994), by Luis Dario Bernal Pinilla; Anacaona, golden flower (2015), by Edwidge Danticat; Anacaona: the last princess of the Caribbean (2017), by Jordi Díez Rojas. Additionally, we have the Journal (1492-1493) and the Letters (1493-1495), by Christopher Columbus, Decades of the New World ([1530] 1912), by Peter Martyr Anghiera, and A short account of the destruction of the Indies ([1552] 2011), by Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas. These are some of the records of subjects who participated in the historical events that present Anacaona’s actions. We rely on assumptions from authors such as Le Goff (1978) and Burke (1992), about the new history; Carvalhal (2006), Coutinho (2004) and Nitrini (2000), regarding comparative literature; Aínsa (1991), Hutcheon (1991), Menton (1993), Weinhardt (1994), Fernández Prieto (2003), Fleck (2007; 2017), Márquez Rodríguez (1991) and Esteves (2007; 2010), about the historical novel; Candido (2007), Rosenfeld (2007), Brait (1985) and Genette (2007), about the configuration of the fictional character and the analysis of the diegesis. Our study reveals that Anacaona's role was minimized in the documentation produced by colonizers who did not record the extent of this woman's resilience in the face of colonizing power and that contemporary literature has been responsible for revitalizing the images of this warrior. This art is a fruitful means of expanding horizons on the past subjugation of Latin American peoples, a path to decolonization.