Racismo e identidade: análise semiótica do livro "O avesso da pele" (2020), de Jeferson Tenório

Abstract

This study presents a semiotic reading of Jeferson Tenório’s novel O Avesso da Pele (2020), centering on Henrique’s journey as he confronts structural racism, social exclusion, and identity disillusionment. Drawing on discursive semiotics and the semiotics of passions, the research examines how racist practices shape subjectivity, producing a disenchanted protagonist in search of recognition and torn by conflicting values. Methodologically, the analysis follows the generative trajectory of meaning, exploring the foundational, narrative, and discursive levels to show how the reported enunciator weaves an affective discourse that challenges dominant ideologies and establishes new regimes of signification. Tracing Henrique’s transformation to its tragic conclusion, the study reveals how his voice, despite being constrained by oppressive social contracts, resonates ethically through memory, listening, and resistance. Ultimately, his discourse emerges as both an ethical reinvention of Black identity and a cry for freedom for his son, fostering solidarity within the Black community. This qualitative, descriptive, bibliographic research is grounded primarily in the work of Greimas (1979), Barros (2018), and Fiorin (2018). Keywords: Racism; Discursive semiotics; Disillusionment; Semiotics of passion