Um estudo semiótico da subalternização do corpo negro feminino no romance "Solitária", de Eliana Alves Cruz

Abstract

This study investigated, from the perspective of A. J. Greimas' discursive semiotics, how Eliana Alves Cruz's novel Solitária represents and challenges the subalternation of the Black female body in contemporary Brazilian literature. We adopted a bibliographic and descriptive-qualitative approach for data analysis, grounded in Afro-Brazilian literary debates and intersectionality studies. The theoretical framework of Greimas (1969; 1975), Barros (1988; 2005), and Fiorin (2008) was mobilized, articulating the three semiotic levels — fundamental, narrative, and discursive — in the interpretation of utterances. The results reveal that the novel denounces the colonial-patriarchal legacy by embodying, through the figure of the domestic worker, tensions ranging from dependency to the pursuit of autonomy. Simultaneously, the narrative constructs “territories of freedom” through utterances alternating silence and speech, configuring moments of reflection and empowerment for Eunice and Mabel. The personification of domestic spaces — the “cramped room” and the resting room — exposes mechanisms of control and, paradoxically, possibilities of insurgency, where characters redefine their trajectories within the enunciative framework. It is concluded that discursive semiotics constitutes an analytical tool both for the aesthetic decolonization of the literary canon and for identifying discursive strategies of resistance.