A nêga ativa: notas sobre a lógica da denegação em Lélia Gonzalez

A nêga ativa: notes on the logic of denegation (denegação) in Lélia Gonzalez

Abstract

This text aims to reconstruct the concept of racismo por denegação (racism through denegation) as proposed by Lélia Gonzalez in O conceito político-cultural de amefricanidade (1988), in order to investigate the logical and epistemological foundations of her reflection through the thought of Freud and Lacan. In this sense, we examine how the propositions of M. D. Magno and Betty Milan—occasioned by Jacques Lacan’s visit to Latin America in 1980—propose a differentiated status for Brazil in relation to neighboring countries, thereby giving rise to the category of amefricanidade. By analyzing the Portuguese language and asserting that Brazil is an “African America,” the authors propose the term Améfrica Ladina in the text Améfrica ladina: introdução a uma abertura (MAGNO, 1980). Drawing on the discussion between Magno and Betty Milan, Lélia demonstrates how Brazil presents an Africanized culture and language that are denegated by the ideological discourse of the whitening of the population. It is this denegation that constitutes what Gonzalez names the “symptomatology of Brazilian cultural neurosis.”
Therefore, we seek to reconstruct the concept of racism through denegation as formulated by Gonzalez by examining it alongside Sigmund Freud’s text Negation (1925) and Jacques Lacan’s texts with Jean Hyppolite in the Écrits (1966/1998). In
this way, we analyze how the concept of [Verneinung] is taken up by Lélia in order to put forward a hypothesis about how racism operates in Brazil and how it appears in ideological discourses, especially in the myth of racial democracy. Based on Lélia
Gonzalez’s analysis of racism in Brazil, we examine how the author articulates the concept of denegation within psychoanalysis.

Keywords: Psychoanalysis; Lélia Gonzalez; Racism; Denegation.