La Esclava Isaura

Esta novela de Guimar?es narra la historia de emancipaci?n de una mujer esclavizada en el Brasil del primer tercio del siglo XIX y es rescatada por un hombre de la ?lite que se enamora de ella. Reconocida como una de las pocas novelas de tem?tica abolicionista en el Brasil decimon?nico, La esclava Isaura (1875), avanza tambi?n la idea del derecho del individuo, aun el esclavizado, al amor y a la dignidad del esp?ritu, y protesta ante las ideas heredadas de la primac?a social de la riqueza y el abolengo, temas que ven?an reivindic?ndose desde la literatura renacentista y que hab?an cobrado un mayor auge con la Ilustraci?n. La contradicci?n que limita la proyecci?n ideol?gica liberadora de esta obra de Guimar?es, sin embargo, estriba en la tem?tica racial y en la misma definici?n del abolicionismo. En cuanto el narrador enfatiza que la esclavitud que sufre su hero?na mestiza es injusta porque ells es 'demasiado blanca' para ser esclavizada, revela una t?cita aprobaci?n de la naturalizaci?n de la relaci?n entre los llamados negros y la subjetividad esclava. A pesar de su premisa abolicionista, el libro hace caso omiso de las grandes masas de esclavizados africanos y afrocriollos en Brasil. Esta toma de posici?n pone a Guimar?es junto al resto de la intelectualidad brasile?a decimon?nica con respecto al tema de la esclavitud y contribuye a la narrativizaci?n fundacional de la naci?n.

This novel by Guimar?es tells the story of the emancipation of an enslaved woman in Brazil in the first third of the 19th century and is rescued by a wealthy man who falls in love with her. Recognized as one of the few novels with an abolitionist theme in Brazil in the 19th century, La esclava Isaura (Isaura, the slave) (1875), also advances the idea of the right of the individual, even the enslaved, to love and the dignity of their spirit, and protests against the ideas inherited from the social primacy of wealth and ancestry, themes that had been claimed since the literature of the renaissance and that had gained greater momentum with the Enlightenment. The contradiction that limits the liberating ideological projection of this work by Guimar?es, however, lies in the racial theme and in the very definition of abolitionism. As the narrator emphasises that the enslavement suffered by his mixed-race heroine is unjust because she is 'too white' to be enslaved, he reveals a tacit approval of the normalisation of the relationship between so-called blacks and slave subjectivity. Despite its abolitionist premise, the book ignores the great masses of enslaved Africans and Afro-Creoles in Brazil. This stance places Guimar?es side by side with the rest of the 19th century Brazilian intellectuals regarding the issue of slavery and contributes to forming the founding narrative of the nation.