A construção do espaço narrativo em Âmes Tembé de Marie-Georges Thébia: comida e ambientação

Abstract

Published in 2023, Marie-George Thébia's second novel, Amês Tembé, makes an important contribution to consolidating her name among the leading contemporary Guyanese prose writers. Her literary career is notable for its quality, receiving several awards, including the DRAC (Direction Régionale des Affaires Culturelles) prize for her short story "Le Manguier" in 1999; in 2006, the René-Maran prize for another short story: "Bois d'ébène". In 2016, her first novel, La Vie Bidim d'Ambrosia Nelson, was nominated for the Carbet Caribe prize. In Âmes tembé, the writer released a novel that sought to present a multiform and multiethnic Guyana. In this novel, spatiality draws our attention, among other reasons, because of its relation with colors, a fact emphasized by the author in interviews, because of its connection with Tembé art, recognized right from the cover, and also the constant and significant presence of food. Our aim in this article is to develop an analysis of the construction of spatiality from the presence of food in the processes of literary ambience (Dimas, 1985) and topoanalysis of this last work published by Thébia. To delve into the construction of the novel's narrative space, we'll begin from the relation between food and the processes of setting, as well as the notion of memory created by this relation. The writer's multiple experiences merge with those of the protagonist, Manuela, in a plunge into the roots of Guyanese culture, in search of her Guyaneseness. "We hope, through the discussions proposed here, to be able to contribute to the dissemination of Guyanese works to the Brazilian public.