ABSTRACT
Conceição Evaristo is one of Brazil's most prominent contemporary Afro-Brazilian writers and is attracting growing recognition on the broader national and international literary scenes. This chapter provides the connection between literature and political and ethical engagement in Evaristo's work, focusing on a selection of compositions from Poemas da recordação e outros movimentos. In the chapter, the evocations of Evaristo's own life experience as an Afro-Brazilian woman are dovetailed with poems recording the communal memory of the African diaspora and its legacy. The treatment of the theme of memory and the conjuring of a positive, empowering configuration of Afro-Brazilian identity in Poemas da recordação have been the main focus of critical studies on the collection. The chapter focuses on an as yet largely overlooked aspect of the collection and considers the significance of Evaristo's deliberate intertextual exchange with the Lusophone canon for the political and ethical dimension of her work.
