DEPRESSION IN PONCIÁ VICÊNCIO: PSYCHOPATHOLOGICAL ASPECTS AND POSTCOLONIAL CRITIQUE

Abstract

We propose to analyze the work Ponciá Vicêncio (2021), by Conceição Evaristo, from the perspective of psychopathological aspects within the early post-abolitionist context. In this study, we consider the social, economic, and family structure, as well as the postcolonial critique grounded in psychoanalytic studies, in order to understand which circumstances of the post-abolitionist context contributed to the worsening of Ponciá’s depressive condition. Our analysis is supported by the theoretical studies of Frantz Fanon (2020), regarding the psychopathological dimension attributed to people of color in the face of colonial contact and its extension into the postcolonial context; Tatossian (2006) and Cardinalli (2012), to examine how depression manifests in the literary subject; as well as Hall (2023) and Césaire (2020), to develop a critique of the postcolonial structure. Therefore, if Ponciá is immersed in a depressive state that was already observed in her grandfather, this occurs due to the disorganization of postcolonial societies of that period. In light of this, the present work is divided into two parts: first, we examine how literature has portrayed the character of the depressive subject; then, we analyze how Ponciá’s depression is consolidated within the postcolonial context.