A silenced writer: Why take the works of Maria Firmina dos Reis to the basic education classroom?
Maria Firmina dos Reis. Erasure. Unfamiliarity. Prejudice.
Maria Firmina dos Reis was a teacher and writer from Maranhão of the 19th century, who is currently being recognized as one of the precursors of Brazilian women's and black literature. Her first novel, Úrsula, was published in 1859, revealing the author's anti-slavery face. The novel also inaugurates the so-called Afro-Brazilian literature, that is, the literature of Afro-descendant production, whose theme is blackness from its own perspective. Maria Firmina dos Reis also systematically collaborated with the São Luís press, publishing a series of texts and short stories, in addition to the book of poetry entitled Cantos à Beira-Mar, from 1887, returning more forcefully to her abolitionist ideals. Despite coming from the masses, the author did not necessarily address them, finding in literature a form of political and artistic expression. For, even though she did not live as a slave, she watched closely the ills of slavery, which is evident in much of her work. Based on this understanding, the present work aimed to study the reasons for silencing Maria Firmina dos Reis, seeking to highlight the importance of taking the author to classrooms in different teaching modalities. For that, a literature review was carried out, where authors were sought to explain the late recognition of an author who critically debated historical and social themes, within a literary universe that dialogued with her time, contesting many aspects of the society of her time.