The Other Opposite of Me: Self-Identity, Narrative Voices and the Answerable Act in the Novel The Dark Side of Skin, by Jeferson Tenório

ABSTRACT This paper seeks to undertake an analysis of the novel The Dark Side of Skin, by Jeferson Tenório, in order to verify how the issue of racism is elaborated in and through language in order to impact the reader. Therefore, the Bakhtinian concept of heteroglossia is mobilized with the aim of reflecting on the artifice of second-person narration. Besides that, we seek to think about issues such as self-identity and subjectivities, as processes that subjects and characters go through in their journeys of self-knowledge. Finally, in order to expand our analysis, this reflection is supported by the concept of answerable act, by Bakhtin, seeking to reflect on the dialogical relationships of the narrative and characters with other literary works and with Brazilian music by black songwriters.