Two Female Universes and the Borders of Ancestry in Conceição Evaristo and in Ana Paula Tavares

ABSTRACT This article is part of a master’s thesis defended at the Amazonas State University (UEA). Its purpose is to present some of the female characters in the works Olhos d’água [Water Eyes], by Conceição Evaristo (2016), and Um rio preso nas mãos [A River Caught in the Hands], by Ana Paula Tavares (2019), as well as to show how ancestry, as a philosophical operator of reading, connects the two works. This path of observation demonstrates the confluence of an authorial agency that focuses on elaborating performative nuances in the creation of female characters, underscoring distinct sociocultural contexts with an emphasis on categories such as gender, race, class and geopolitical context, which are associated by the use of elements of ancestry in order to highlight divergent positions from hegemonically imposed cultural norms.