To: Jalas&L friends, subscribers, and associates
From: The Editors of Jalas&L
RE: 1) Letters to the Editors
2) Possible Spring issue exclusively on Brazil
3) Highlights's from articles in our current issue
We are very appreciative of the support we continue to receive from our
friends, subscribers, and associates from all over the US and abroad. We
are very thankful for the suggestions, inquiries, and referrals received;
they have, surely, contributed towards broadening our vision and goals.
This week's letters to the Editors come from Professor David Brookshaw,
University of Bristol-England, and from Jorge Amado, one of Brazil's, and
the world's, greatest leading novelists.
Professor Brookshaw expressess his delight in receiving our first issue
and, of course, seeing his article in it. He tells us he is impressed
with Jalas&L's format or, as he states, "the balance we achieved between
scholarly work of one type or another and creative work." He is eager to
contribute further and to assist us in promoting Jalas&L among his
friends, colleagues, and professional associations in England.
Jorge Amado writes to us from his beautiful Bahia, also expressing his
enthusiasm for our journal and for being a member of its Editorial Board.
He wishes us a great 1994, "with health, peace, and good work." He
informs us that he is sending a copy of Jalas&L to the Jorge Amado
Foundation (Fundacao Casa Jorge Amado), in Bahia, Brazil, whose library,
he states, "is tremendously frequented by scholars from all over the
world; and this," he continues, "would help promote Jalas&L even more."
Amado also speaks about the heart attack he suffered in mid 1993,
asserting that he has been obliged to strongly "reduce the rhythm
of life he was living." We sincerely wish him well in all his
endeavours and ask that you join us in also wishing him a most
consistent and complete recovery.
With this opportunity, we also remind everyone that our Fall 1994 "Call for
Papers" is out and that its deadline is April 30th, 1994. Request for
extensions on this deadline will be gladly considered on an individual
basis. Also, we have received enough submissions on African-Latin
American studies and literatures regarding Brazilian society to allow us
to consider dedicating a Spring issue entirely to Brazil. We will keep
you informed of this possibility and will release info regarding some of
the titles selected, by next March.
The following are some highlights from the first article listed in our
current issue: "The Case of Machado de Assis' "Mariana:" Pitiful Slave,
or Exceptional "Mulata?" -- by Professor David Brookshaw, University of
Bristol, England.
"Two proverbs, widely used in Brazil during slavery, are an important
starting point for this study. The first was recalled by the Italian
jesuit Andreoni, who served in Brazil in the latter part of the 17th
Century. In his observations of Brazilian society, Andreoni expressed his
agreement with the common saying that "Brazil is a hell for blacks, a
purgatory for whites, and a paradise for mulattoes," as quoted by Raymond
Sayers (46). The other saying, more blunt, but already of long tradition
when heard by another traveller to Brazil in the 19th Century, proclaimed
that "white women are for marrying, black women for working, and mulatto
women for fornicating." The two dicta are communicating the same
fundamental idea, for it should not be forgotten that for Brazil's
patriarchal society, it was not the white man who abused the black woman,
but rather she who seduced the white man. Thus, the "mulata" was in her
paradise for she was doing what she most like doing. As the Brazilian
sociologist Sonia Maria Giacomini states in her study on women slaves,
a exaltacao sexual da escrava e o culto 'a sensualidade da mulata,
tao caros 'a nossa cultura branca e machista, vistos sob um novo
prisma, mais do que explicar os ataques sexuais 'as escravas,
parecem cumprir uma funcao justificadora. (66)
Twentieth-century Brazilian nativism has by now amalgamated the two
aphorisms with their constituent ideas of sex and pleasure: the figure of
the "mulata"--as an embodiment of Brazilian sensuality and
"joie-de-vivre"--speaks more of the survival of patriarchal values and
attendant machismo, and at a more commercial level, of something akin to
sexual tourism, than it does of the real or imagined beauty of the
"mulata."........"
Next week, we will bring you highlights from Professor Zila' Bernd's
article: "The Construction of Femininity and Black Consciousness in
Brazilian Literature." Professor Bernd teaches French and Brazilian
literatures at Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, in Brazil,
however, at present, she is a visiting scholar at Universite' Limoges.
Peace, and to all of you our heartfelt thanks!
Rosangela Maria Vieira, Editor of Jalas&L
Department of Modern Languages and Literatures
Howard University
2400 6th St., N.W. - Locke Hall
Washington, D.C. 20059
E-Mail: (Internet: rmvieira@cldc.howard.edu)
Manuel Garcia-Castellon, Associate Editor of Jalas&L
Foreign Languages Department
University of New Orleans
Lakefront
New Orleans, LA 70148
Kathleen Palombo King, Technical Editor of Jalas&L
Engineering Department
Pennsylvania Institute of Technology
800 Manchester Avenue
Media, PA 19063
E-Mail: (Internet: pgkpking@cyber.widener.edu)
Requests for subscription forms and copies of the CALL FOR PAPERS
pgkpking@cyber.widener.edu
Information regarding submissions, comments and additional info:
rmvieira@cldc.howard.edu