Tatiana’s Return, a Story about Black Motherhood

ABSTRACT The objective of this research is to analyze how the motherhood of black women is represented in the short story O retorno de Tatiana [Tatiana’s Return], by Miriam Alves, considering the reference to Afro-diasporic matrices and how they bring ancestry to this narrative. The discussion is committed to theories and concepts specific to contemporary Afro-Brazilian literature at the intersection with theoretical paradigms originating from black feminist thought. By engendering a means of freedom and transcendence, Miriam Alves raises reflection on the prohibition of motherhood for black women and the ways in which they can exercise motherhood through matrifocality and motherhood by extension, also thinking the religiosity of Afro-descendant origin as a place of healing for womb-matrix of the main character. The short story can be instituted as a settlement of resistance, with the ancestral force manifested in the way of living, feeling and writing.