Writes in aprons: notes on the testimony of a maids

Abstract

In observing the general tastes and preferences of Brazilian academic criticism, one notices a near indifference to testimonial literature, or simply testimony—an indifference which has caused a few concerned critics to defend the literary attributes of the genre, defending it as literature, by associating it with the already established form of autobiography. In this essay, we are interested in studying the specifics of testimony using as an example A luta que me fez crescer [The Struggle that Made Me Stronger] (1999), written by Cornelia Parisius and based on interviews of the militant maid Lenira Carvalho. At such a time when the institutionalization of literature in Brazil is being re-evaluated, testimony presents some important theoretical challenges. For feminist critics, the genre represents an inextinguishable source of information about subaltern women’s routes of access to practices of narration (of personal life) and publication; in Jean Franco’s terms, their struggle for “interpretive power.” It is hoped, then, that this paper may contribute to the study of Brazilian testimonial literature.