Spring 2015 Syllabus Department of Spanish and Portuguese

POR375 Topics in Brazilian Literature and Culture Gender, Sexuality and Labor in Brazilian Culture (#45575) MEZ 1.122 (T/TH 2:00-3:30)

Instructor: Prof. Sonia Roncador Office: BEN 3.132 Tel.: 232-4525 Email: [email protected] Office hours: T/TH 12:00-1:30 (or by appointment)

Course Description:

The objective of this course is to introduce students to the vast spectrum of working women characters in Brazilian literature and film (namely, maids, prostitutes, teachers, factory workers, street vendors, as well as unpaid housewives), in order to examine the roles of race and gender in shaping the repertoire of stereotypes surrounding women’s labor in modern . Given our objective to provide a panoramic approach to the topic, the course thus proposes to examine cultural stereotypes over the course of a century in Brazil; that is, from the complex web of lower-class women workers at the turn of the century (immigrant factory workers, free servants and street vendors) to a more socially- diverse scenario of women workers in the period between the World Wars, to the massive entrance of upper and middle-class women in the job market in the late 1960s and 1970s. Some topics of discussion will include: the ideology of women’s labor of love; the long- lasting debate about women’s “public” work and morality/cult of domesticity; the racialization and feminization of servitude; the Brazilian mid-century “feminine mystique;” immigration and the Brazilian female proletariat; and feminist discourses of labor.

This course carries the Global Cultures flag.

Course Materials:

A wide range of articles, essays, plays, crônicas and book excerpts will be made available via Canvas. Films are available for watching at www.youtube.com or Mezzes Computer Lab.

Grading:

Consistent attendance is mandatory. Since four absences are allowed during the semester, please reserve them for illness, religious holidays or other personal emergencies, and do not consider them “free” days. Absence from a class is not an excuse for missing homework assignments or tests. As it is stated by the Academic Policies and Procedures of the General Catalog, “A student who misses classes or other required activities, including examinations, for the observance of a religious holy day should inform the instructor as far in advance of the absence as possible, so that arrangements can be made to complete an assignment within a reasonable time after the absence” (http://www.utexas.edu/student/registrar/catalogs/gi05-06/ch4/ch4g.html).

Students must read all assigned texts in advance and should be able to answer the instructor’s questions on the content and significance of the works; two or three questions will be posted on Canvas prior to each class period. Homework, class attendance, and participation in in-class discussion will comprise the class participation grade. Students should check with the instructor several times in the semester to make sure that they are meeting the course’s standards of participation in class. Final grade will be based on: class participation (30%); three tests (45%); and one final paper (25%). Instructor will use “plus” and “minus” grades for final course grades.

Course will be taught in Portuguese.

Rules and Policies:

1.The tests cannot be taken before the designated dates. Make-ups are allowed only in cases of emergency. A student with an emergency should notify the instructor as soon as possible so that an arrangement can be made promptly and present documented evidence of the excuse.

2. Emergency is defined as: A. Serious illness or accident or B. Death, or serious illness, or accident in the students’ immediate family. For other circumstances, consult the instructor.

3. Instructor will make herself available to discuss appropriate academic accommodations that a student may require as a student with a disability. Before course accommodations will be made, students will be required to provide documentation prepared by the Services for Students with Disabilities Office (SSD). To ensure that the most appropriate accommodations can be provided, students should contact the SSD Office at 471-6259 or 471-4641. For more information, read regulations for Academic Accommodations for Students with Disabilities http://deanofstudents.utexas.edu/ssd.

4. Scholastic dishonesty: students who violate University rules on scholastic dishonesty are subject to disciplinary penalties, including the possibility of failure in the course and/or dismissal from The University of Texas. Since such dishonesty harms the individual, all students, and the integrity of the University, policies on scholastic dishonesty will be strictly enforced. For more information, visit Student Judicial Services (SJS) at http://deanofstudents.utexas.edu/sjs/.

Weekly Schedule:

PART I: Introduction to Gender and Labor Politics in Brazil

01/20: Syllabus presentation 01/22: Patricia Yancey Martin’s “‘Said and Done’ versus ‘Saying and Doing’: Gendering Practices, Practicing Gender at Work”; “Mulheres e o mercado de trabalho” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90gi5Epd6Og) Recommended Readings: Joan W. Scott’s “Gender: A Useful Category of Analysis” & Maria Cristina A. Bruschini’s “Work and Gender in Brazil in the last ten years” http://censo2010.ibge.gov.br/noticias- censo?view=noticia&id=3&idnoticia=2296&busca=1&t=censo-2010-mulheres-sao-mais- instruidas-que-homens-ampliam-nivel-ocupacao

PART II: The Rise of the Brazilian Domestic Woman (the circulation of Brazilian housekeeping manuals and chronicles during the Old Republic and the period between World Wars. Topics of discussion: the emergence of the ideology of domesticity versus women’s white-collar employment; the moral value of domestic service; proto-feminist intellectuals and the campaign for women’s education; the race/social class issue in women’s labor discourse; gender and racial division of labor)

01/27: Nancy Armstrong’s The Rise of the Domestic Woman 01/29: Julia Lopes de Almeida’s Livro das noivas (excerpts)

02/03: Julia Lopes de Almeida’s Livro das donnas e donzellas (excerpts) 02/05: Carmen Moncorvo’s “Educação feminina” & “Aunt Zeze’s Tears”

02/10: Housekeeping Manuals (excerpts) 02/12: ’s Correio feminino (excerpts)

02/17: Clarice Lispector’s “Amor” 02/19: Test 1 (in class)

PART III: Gender/Sexuality and Labor (the concept of [skilled] work in the Old Republic; the education and representation of the factory woman worker; early feminism in Brazil: suffragists and Marxists; the formation of white female ghettoes in the work market: the case of teaching; the female teacher character in Brazilian culture)

02/24: Barbara Weinstein’s “Unskilled Worker, Skilled Housewife: Constructing the Working-Class Woman in São Paulo, Brazil” 02/26: “Carmela” (Antonio de Alcântara Machado) & “A fábrica” (from Contos anarquistas)

03/03: Pagu’s Parque Industrial (excerpts) 03/05: (cont.) & the Brazilian suffragists

03/10: “Feminização do magistério no Brasil” (http://www.histedbr.fe.unicamp.br/acer_histedbr/jornada/jornada7/_GT1%20PDF/FEMI NIZA%C7%C3O%20DO%20MAGIST%C9RIO%20NO%20BRASIL.pdf) 03/12: ’s “A Escola da Mestra Silvina”

03/17-19: SPRING BREAK

03/24: Film Central do Brasil, by 03/26: Film Bossa Nova, by Bruno Barreto; Test 2 (take-home essay questions)

PART IV: Precarious Work—Domestic Servitude and Prostitution (Sex traffic to/from Brazil; prostitutes’ activism and sex tourism today; sexuality and work contracts; prostitution and servitude; the Brazilian culture of domestic service; blackness, womanhood and servitude)

03/31: Sonia Roncador’s “The Burdened Legacy of Domestic Servitude” 04/02: Consuelo Lins’s Babás

04/07: Fernando Meirelles & Nando Olival’s Domésticas 04/09: Gabriel Mascaro’s Doméstica

04/14: Priscilla Gershon’s “Profissionais do sexo: da invisibilidade ao reconhecimento” 04/16: Gabriela Silva Leite’s Eu, mulher da vida (excerpts); Praça da Luz/69 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7v0XhQ_ObIk)

04/21:Sex and Tourism (selection of blogs: http://anaeufrazio.blogspot.com/2014/10/o- show-de-racismo-sexismo-e-de-mulatas-no-congresso-do-Ipea.html; http://blogdosakamoto.blogosfera.uol.com.br/2013/07/31/na-copa-o-brasil-vai-oferecer- o-que-tem-de-melhor-suas-criancas/) 04/23: Test 3 (in class)

PART V: Women in the Arts and Literature (gendered metaphors of the creative process; female authorship and conventional motherhood; the [still] masculine field of literature in Brazil)

04/28: Roland Barthes’s “Novels and Children” 04/30: João do Rio’s “Um lar de artistas” (Momento literário: http://www.dominiopublico.gov.br/download/texto/bn000134.pdf)

05/05: Clarice Lispector’s “Felicidade Clandestina”; ’s “Rua Sabará 400” 05/07: Course Conclusion Final Paper due (TBA)