Paraty Int’l Literary Fest honors first anti-slavery female novelist
Held in the year of the Bicentennial of the Independence of Brazil, the centennial of the country’s watershed Modern Art Week, and the bicentennial of the birth of Brazilian abolitionist author Maria Firmina dos Reis, the 20th edition of the International Literary Festival of Paraty, FLIP, is dedicated to promoting a more welcoming environment in culture and education. The event is back to the streets of the historic town in Rio de Janeiro state after two years online.
The program of the festival, which will take place between November 23 and 27, was unveiled Tuesday (Sep 13). The event was curated collectively by journalist, translator, and editor Fernanda Bastos; Federal University of Bahia Professor Milena Britto; and Princeton University Professor Pedro Meira Monteiro.
Talking about Maria Firmina dos Reis, the festival’s curators said, means connecting Brazil with itself, bringing to light diversified and marginalized stories and journeys.
The author—a black woman who lived on the fringes of Brazilian society in the 19th century—built characters and narratives that have been a source of inspiration for readers, teachers, and contemporary writers through her approach to Brazil as both real and fictional, curator Fernanda Basctos noted.
The goal, Bastos said, is to “send a message” with the tribute to Maria Firmina, a black author from the Northeastern state of Maranhão.
Her exact physical appearance is not available, Basctos went on to point out. “We only have approximations, but we think it’s important to play with that, at a moment when image is so vital. We are dealing with an author who was ignored for a long time and now has been the object of study by researchers—mainly women—who are also marginalized, just as Maria Firmina was.”
Based on the little information available, specialists believe Maria Firmina must have been born in 1822. She is the author of the nation’s first abolitionist novel, Úrsula, released in 1859. A writer and educator, Maria Firmina suffered from historical erasure and has been rediscovered both in Brazil and abroad. She published short stories and poems in newspapers, wrote the Hino da Libertação dos Escravos (“Hymn of the Liberation of Slaves”), and founded a free school for children. Maria Firmina died in 1917, with no recognition.
