O livro “Contemporary Global Thinking from Latin American Women”, organizado por Aurea Mota, Laura Fólica e Diana Roig-Sanz, reúne artigos de pesquisadoras latino-americanas. Eu faço uma contribuição. Para acessar, ver:

 

Sexual Difference and Abjection: What is the Gender of Enslaved Black Women?

 

Berenice Bento

 

In research, at some point, a sort of paralysis can take hold. This usually occurs when one concludes that the concepts one is applying are not working properly. The notion of utility – whether something works or not – can lead us to ask why restricted/narrow definitions are useful. I have heard that they are tools – a statement generally supported by an exchange between Deleuze and Foucault (Foucault 1989). A set of concepts could be a tool, a device. Distancing myself from these functional metaphors, I would say that definitions of a particular reality create an academic narrative, not because they contribute to putting together otherwise fragmented pieces, but because they allow the thinker to produce new images, leading us to ask new questions that did not exist earlier. More than helping us reach certain conclusions, concepts allow us to notice different paths, creating new problems and making us bend and unbend our thinking. It is you, and only you, who will build certain images, sounds, and colors from an original articulation of testimonies, films, poems, and scientific and historical texts. Even though a definition may be available to all, each researcher will produce new and unexpected scenarios.