A roda e o tempo espiralar em dois textos de Conceição Evaristo

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to analyze the relations between the circle and the spiraling time encounter in two literary texts of the Afro-Brazilian writer Conceição Evaristo, namely: the poem A roda dos não ausentes [The circle of non-absents], published in the book Poemas da recordação e outros movimentos [Poems of remembrance and other movements], and the novel Ponciá Vicêncio. This analysis is based on studies by Arruda (2015), Ferreira and Castro (2020), Peçanha (2012) and Rufino (2019) to understand the multiple meanings that the circle has in African and Afro-Brazilian cultural manifestations, as well as to understand the relationships between the circle and a conception of non-linear time present in these cultures, a time that is best expressed by the concept of “spiraling time”, developed by Martins (2021). As a result, it is observed that, in both texts analyzed, the wheel is traced by the movements of the body and voice that inscribe the spiraling time, acting, simultaneously, as a space for individuals to meet their ancestry and a space for resuming their racial identities.