Marked bodies in the times of history: black childhood in literature and press

Abstract

Under the scope of history, literature and the press, this article takes up the issue of black childhood and the impact of racism in two short stories that have two black girls as protagonists, namely Negrinha, by Monteiro Lobato (1994), and “Note - How it ended in Goias, the punishment of broken shards in the neck” (Nota - De como acabou, em Goiás, o castigo dos cacos quebrado no pescoço), by Cora Coralina (2011). With these two literary texts, the article aims  to establish connections with articles found in press pages that address cases of racism committed against children in the first seven months of the year 2022. The analysis of this theme was based on bibliographic studies in literature, history of childhood and current events, an incursion that allowed to verify that, despite the specificities of each story, as well as the current reality, the narratives converge and provide the historiographic work with the portrait of the black child living in a space marked by the vestige of slavery, therefore, a place of oppression. When comparing the literature produced in the 20th century with the cases of racism reported in the press - even though the anti-racist movements have captured attention -it is evident that the the marks of racism that hit the bodies of black children prevail with harsh consequences.