| Doña María's Story: Life History, Memory, and Political Identity Contributor(s): James, Daniel (Author) |
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ISBN: 082232492X ISBN-13: 9780822324928 Publisher: Duke University Press OUR PRICE: $26.55 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: January 2001 Annotation: "A landmark book. For those interested in history, "testimonio," women's studies, "Dona Maria's Story" brings to life a forgotten heroine of the struggle for justice in Latin America and questions how we can listen to her voice."--Ariel Dorfman "This book is a gem, a gift to the reader, a wonderful read. We learn about a significant part of Argentina's sad modern history at the same time that we are reading a highly sophisticated and well-informed meditation on the oral historian's craft."-- Deborah Levenson, Boston College |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - History | Latin America - South America - Social Science | Women's Studies |
| Dewey: B |
| LCCN: 00035457 |
| Series: Latin America Otherwise: Languages, Empires, Nations |
| Physical Information: 0.87" H x 6.1" W x 9.1" (1.14 lbs) 336 pages |
| Themes: - Cultural Region - Latin America |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: In this remarkable book historian Daniel James presents the gripping, poignant life-story of Do a Mar a Rold n, a woman who lived and worked for six decades in the meatpacking community of Berisso, Argentina. A union activist and fervent supporter of Juan and Eva Per n, Do a Mar a's evocative testimony prompts James to analyze the promise and problematic nature of using oral sources for historical research. The book thus becomes both fascinating narrative and methodological inquiry. Do a Mar a's testimony is grounded in both the local context (based on the author's thirteen years of historical and ethnographic research in Berisso) and a broader national narrative. In this way, it differs from the dominant genre of women's testimonial literature, and much recent ethnographic work in Latin America, which have often neglected historical and communal contextualization in order to celebrate individual agency and self-construction. James examines in particular the ways that gender influences Do a Mar a's representation of her story. He is careful to acknowledge that oral history challenges the historian to sort through complicated sets of motivations and desires--the historian's own wish to uncover "the truth" of an informant's life and the interviewee's hope to make sense of her or his past and encode it with myths of the self. This work is thus James's effort to present his research and his relationship with Do a Mar a with both theoretical sophistication and recognition of their mutual affection. While written by a historian, Do a Mar a's Story also engages with concerns drawn from such disciplines as anthropology, cultural studies, and literary criticism. It will be especially appreciated by those involved in oral, Latin American, and working-class history. |