Reflections on madness and slavery in “A Escrava”, a story by Maria Firmina dos Reis

Abstract

This essay consists of an analysis proposal of the short-story “A Escrava”, by Maria Firmina dos Reis (1822-1917), a writer from Maranhão. Our aim is to establish relations between the phenomena of slavery and madness, highlighting this intersection, through a critical reading of the work, in which it is possible to follow the sufferings of Joana, an escaped enslaved black woman, who embodies in her life many of the horrors unleashed during slavery. Through theoretical reflection that gives privilege to interdisciplinarity produced by reading articles from different fields, observations on the dehumanization of enslaved black bodies are outlined, a process capable of causing suffering that leads to madness. From this analysis, it is clear that the madness of the enslaved Joana is linked to the consequences of the master-slave relationships that deprived a black woman of her humanity, who had her two small children taken away from her arms. In this work, Maria Firmina dos Reis gives voice to characters who describe the lives of people who had no right to speak or claim; on the contrary, their bodies were objectified and animalised by their owners, leaving them mostly to subjugation and dehumanization.