Brazilian Women Speak: Contemporary Life Stories - Hardcover

Patai, Daphne

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0813513006 ISBN 13: 9780813513003

Publisher: Rutgers Univ Pr, 1988

Synopsis

Twenty Brazilian women, including domestic servants, secretaries, nuns, hairdressers, prostitutes, schoolgirls, and entrepreneurs, discuss their lives

About this title

From Publishers Weekly:

Patai ( The Orwell Mystique: A Study in Male Ideology ), professor of women's studies and of Portuguese at the University of Massachusetts, interviewed Brazilian women in 1981 when that country's military dictatorship was in power. Here she gathers 20 diverse subjects ranging from Teresa, a black, 44-year-old laundress who says her job "takes a lot out of you" but "is easier than working in the fields," and in a few words conveys much of her life's struggles, to Marta, a well-educated middle-class white who devotes abundant energy to complaining about her relationship with the maid. Having chosen a "speaker-centered approach," Patai preserves the rhythm of each interviewee's voice, thus demonstrating the poetic qualities of these oral histories. Though of varied backgrounds, many of the women express similar concerns: the challenge of making their way in a patriarchal society; surviving a period of intense inflation and unemployment; raising children; obtaining adequate medical care. The introduction is thoughtful and exciting, exploring the implications of interviewing and storytelling, and alerting the reader to the beauty, the creative act, of speech.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Rutgers Univ Pr
• Publication date: 1988
• ISBN 10: 0813513006
• ISBN 13: 9780813513003
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 389