Abstract
Abstract: This article considers Gayl Jones's interventions as a counter-storyteller of Black Brazilian history, focusing on her narrative-poem Song for Anninho (1981) and novel Palmares (2021). Highlighting in each the history of the Palmares quilombo , or maroon community, through the eyes of Almeyda, a Black woman, Jones features marronage as an act of resistance to enslavement as well as a radical Black tradition through which she can critique the white historical and literary canon in the Americas. These questions surrounding Black women's fugitivity put Jones directly in hemispheric conversation with Lélia Gonzalez (1935–94) and Beatriz Nascimento (1942–95), pioneers in Black Brazilian feminist theory. Jones, Gonzalez, and Nascimento understand orality as critical to Black resistance through storytelling, language, and knowledge production. As each offer readings of Black Brazilian history, the mis-readings—misrepresentations of Black women by the archive and what Black women purposefully obscure—are potential risks taken to resist archival silences.
Published Version
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