Reflections on the social role of the indigenous author, his body and his community

Abstract

This article reflects on the question of authorship, analyzing how the author's life may or may not impact literary analysis and the historical-social role of the author in the contexts of Western autobiographical tradition and indigenous literature. These issues will be discussed within a narrow scope: drawing from the ideas of Barthes, Foucault, and Bourdieu, we consider the "death of the author" and proceed to delineate the relevance of the author's body and community in relation to indigenous literature. To do so, we ground our analyses in the concept of "escrevivência" (writing-living) by Conceição Evaristo, also drawing on the works of Ailton Krenak, Kaká Werá, Graça Graúna, and other indigenous authors, listening to their voices and understanding their concepts.