Owen, Hilary

About the author: Hilary Own is Senior Lecturer in Portuguese at the University of Manchester. She is also the editor of Gender, Ethnicity and Class in Modern Portuguese-Speaking Culture, and has published widely on Portuguese women’s writing.

Gender, Ethnicity and Class in Modern Portuguese Speaking Culture

1996 0-7734-8849-9
These readings of modern Portuguese, Brazilian, and Portuguese African texts articulate a challenge by drawing on different theories of how gender, ethnicity and class relate to the production and reception of culture. Consequently, the collection juxtaposes and connects new readings of well-known literary figures such as Ariano Suassuna, Agustina Bessa Luís, Hélia Correia, Henrique Teixeira de Sousa and Clarice Lispector with readings of "popular culture" as represented by samba, circo-teatro, images of women in advertising and oral narratives from the southeast of Brazil. The diversity of the critical approaches adopted demonstrates both the potential for new "coalitional" connections and the demands imposed by deconstructing the Lusist canon.

Portuguese Women’s Writing 1972 to 1986 Reincarnations of a Revolution

2000 0-7734-7517-6
This is a study of narrative fiction by Portuguese woman writers immediately before the 25 April Revolution and during the post-revolution and transitions period of 1974-1986. Departing from the Three Marias’ a Novas Cartas Portuguesas as an influential turning point for women’s writing, the study goes on to analyze novels by Teolinda Gersão, Hélia Correia, Olga Gonçalves, and Lídia Jorge. An exploration of women’s sexually embodied subjectivity not only offers new perspectives on Portuguese history and society but also demands a broader reconceptualization of the relationship between alterity and representation.