The crime of Cais do Valongo, by Eliana Alves Cruz: fiction as (re) writing of History

This study seeks to analyze the novel O crime do Cais do Valongo, written by Brazilian journalist and writer Eliana Alves Cruz, published in 2018. The intention of this work is to investigate how the author uses historical resources to build the fictional narrative presented in the novel, understanding that History is also a discourse and, as such, a social construction. Therefore, making use of fictionalization, the author introduces us to the character Muana Lomue, a Mozambican slave in Brazil, who takes on the narrative in first person for the majority of the book - an important formal feature when building a rich and complex black character, as we show in this study, that goes against the black people stereotypes cemented in Brazilian literature. With that, we also endorse that Cruz's work may be a relevant element to be added to the literary repertoire offered in the Brazilian curriculum, oriented by an anti-racist education. In addition, we try to put into perspective the use of artifices that belong to the genre of crime fiction, which helps Muana to become both the witness and the agent of the story that's being told, as well as highlight the notion of crime when associated to the context of slavery in which the plot is developed.