Project description
A closer look at Indigenous stereotypes through literature
In Brazil, Indigenous peoples confront entrenched stereotypes, propagated by European colonisers, depicting them as primitive and inferior due to their close ties to nature. These biases, disseminated through literature and historiography, underpin discrimination, land encroachment, and Amazon deforestation. Despite historiographical critiques, prevalent epistemologies often overlook Indigenous oral histories, perpetuating one-dimensional portrayals. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) programme, the FLORISH project will collaborate with Indigenous authors to reconstruct their pasts, counteracting colonial biases. By melding Decolonial Studies, Theory of History, and Literary Theory, the project pioneers a method of collective writing, amplifying Indigenous voices and fostering a sustainable, diverse future. FLORISH aims not only to deconstruct harmful stereotypes, but also to reconstruct narratives for a decolonised world.
Objective
This project explores the unique potential of historical fiction as a transformative method to create counter-representations of
Indigenous peoples in Brazil, where they are often seen as inferior and savage because of their close connection to nature. These
stereotypes, spread by European colonisers through literature and historiography, have become ingrained in collective sensibilities
and are currently used to justify racism against Indigenous peoples, the illegal occupation of their lands and the deforestation of the
Amazon rainforest. Historiography has criticised these views, but due to its dominant epistemology, which relies firmly on written
records, the field does not usually go beyond deconstructive ambitions. Indigenous ethnic groups, on the other hand, tend to pass on
their histories orally, so their ecocultures and resistance to colonialism fall outside the lens of prevalent epistemology. The central
research question of this project is:
How can historical fiction help us explore pluralistic views of the Indigenous pasts and open up new visions for a sustainable and
diverse future?
Answering this question calls for innovative and interdisciplinary methods to achieve three goals: (1) to understand how Brazilian
writers have used historiography and fiction to represent Indigenous peoples in historical novels; (2) to identify how the
epistemology of historiography constrains (or even silences) the writing of Indigenous historical fiction; (3) to develop a method of
collective writing with Indigenous authors that allows us to co-create representations of their pasts and ecocultures. The project
draws on Decolonial Studies, Theory of History and Literary Theory, and combines methods of discourse and intertextual analysis,
qualitative interviews and collaborative writing with Indigenous writers from Brazil. The proposal moves from deconstruction to
reconstruction in a context of growing appeal for a sustainable, multicultural and decolonised world.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
- humanitiesphilosophy, ethics and religionphilosophyepistemology
- humanitieshistory and archaeologyhistory
- social sciencessociologysocial issuessocial inequalitiesracial inequality
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Programme(s)
- HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Main Programme
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European FellowshipsCoordinator
3062 PA Rotterdam
Netherlands