Banca de DEFESA: MARGARETE CONCEIÇÃO NOGUEIRA

Uma banca de DEFESA de DOUTORADO foi cadastrada pelo programa.
DISCENTE : MARGARETE CONCEIÇÃO NOGUEIRA
DATA : 31/03/2026
HORA: 14:00
LOCAL: PPGEL
TÍTULO:

CHILDHOOD AS A SPACE FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF IDENTITY AND OBSERVATION OF THE WORLD IN ONDJAKI'S LITERATURE

PALAVRAS-CHAVES:

angolan literature; cultural memory; orality; postcoloniality; child subjectivity.

PÁGINAS: 199
GRANDE ÁREA: Linguística, Letras e Artes
ÁREA: Letras
SUBÁREA: Outras Literaturas Vernáculas
RESUMO:

This dissertation investigates the representation of childhood in the works of Ondjaki,
understanding it as a privileged space for identity formation, world interpretation, and
symbolic elaboration of memory. In the Angolan context—marked by the historical layers of
colonization, civil war, and national reconstruction—childhood in the author’s narratives
emerges not as a preparatory stage but as an epistemological and aesthetic horizon through
which reality is interpreted. The comparative analysis of four key works — Os da Minha Rua
(2021), Uma Escuridão Bonita (2013), A Bicicleta que Tinha Bigodes (2011), and Bom Dia,
Camaradas (2001) — reveals how Ondjaki articulates orality, memory, lyricism, and social
criticism to construct a childlike gaze capable of illuminating both the intimate and collective
dimensions of the Angolan experience. The theoretical framework draws upon Philippe Ariès,
Walter Benjamin, Maurice Halbwachs, Gaston Bachelard, and Maria Nikolajeva, as well as
African and postcolonial thinkers such as Frantz Fanon, Achille Mbembe, and Inocência
Mata. These contributions allow for an understanding of childhood as a historical and cultural
category, memory as both individual and collective phenomenon, affective spaces as
extensions of lived experience, and children’s literature as an aesthetic and political territory.
The results show that in Os da Minha Rua, childhood is reconstructed as an affective
cartography of the city, where the street and the neighborhood become places of belonging,
conviviality, and resistance. In Uma Escuridão Bonita, adolescence is marked by sensory and
emotional discoveries, where silence, brevity, and the instant reveal subtle ways of perceiving
the other. In A Bicicleta que Tinha Bigodes, children’s desires confront social inequalities,
and the bicycle becomes a metaphor for freedom, imagination, and reinvention. In Bom Dia,
Camaradas, the child’s gaze is inserted into the political discourses of post-independence
Angola, exposing tensions between revolutionary ideals and everyday contradictions. The
study concludes that childhood in Ondjaki’s work not only resignifies individual memory but
also becomes a critical lens through which contemporary Angola can be understood. His
writing blends humor, lyricism, and orality to build narratives that affirm the child as a subject
capable of observing, interpreting, and reinventing the world. By restoring to childhood the
power to narrate, Ondjaki demonstrates that it is through remembering and imagining that a
people rediscovers its identity. Thus, this research argues that literature centered on childhood
functions not only as an aesthetic practice but also as a space of symbolic resistance, sensitive
formation, and expanded possibilities for reading life and history.

MEMBROS DA BANCA:
Presidente - 83238001 - VERA LÚCIA DA ROCHA MAQUÊA
Interno - 82321001 - ISAAC NEWTON ALMEIDA RAMOS
Externa ao Programa - 254986024 - ANA CLAUDIA SERVILHA MARTINS POLETO
Externa à Instituição - NORMA SUELI ROSA LIMA - UERJ
Externo à Instituição - SAVIO ROBERTO FONSECA DE FREITAS - UFPB