AN AFRO-BRAZILIAN LOOK FOR O CORTIÇO

This article is a re-reading of the novel O cortiço, by Aluísio Azevedo, from theoretical reflections about the concepts that involve Afro-Brazilian literature. In that work, the representation of black woman takes us to the stereotypes of race and gender: seductive woman, responsible for the white man misguided. Methodologically, we get the category “black literature”, by Zilá Bernd (1987), closer to the engaged proposal of “Afro-Brazilian literature”, by Eduardo de Assis Duarte (2011), to discuss about the possibilities for revision of the Brazilian colonial past in the literary texts. Therefore, we used an approach of literary text reading that emphasizes the cultural intertexts of the artistic representations. According to the comparative studies, the dialogue between texts and culture promotes the critical rereading of the past, because the literary text becomes illuminated by a post-colonial look.