Tensões na Sala de Visitas: pacto da branquitude nos diários de Carolina Maria de Jesus

Abstract

This dissertation investigates how the pact of whiteness and the power relations intrinsic to the Brazilian literary system reverberate in the works and career of Carolina Maria de Jesus. The objective is to evaluate to what extent these dimensions permeate Carolina's prose and how the white elite, firmly established in the literary system, manipulated power resources, erecting obstacles to the writer’s professional advancement. The methodology used is based on content analysis of Carolina Maria de Jesus' texts, bibliographic review of her intellectual production, and analysis of various documents. The results show that power relations in the national literary system significantly impacted the creative activity of the author from Minas Gerais, manifesting more forcefully in the diaries Quarto de Despejo and Casa de Alvenaria, which constitute part of the empirical material of this research. Both works reveal the impact of the pact of whiteness not only on the writer's artistic development but also on her social trajectory.