Narcisa Amália de Oliveira Campos (São João da Barra, 3 April 1856 - Rio de Janeiro, 24 June 1924) was a Brazilian poet, and women's rights activist. She also considered the first female professional journalist in Brazil.[1]

Biography

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Narcisa Amália was born in São João da Barra in 1856. In addition to several newspapers, she wrote for O Sexo Feminino (1870s), and collaborated in the journal A leitura (Reading; 1894-1896). In her debut book, Nebulosas she advanced the importance of the role of the press in the struggle against slavery.[1] During this period, only few women were able to achieve renown as poets and literary figures in Brazil.[2] This is attributed to the lack of women participation in Brazilian politics, literature, and education during the peak and decline of the country's pariarchal system.[3] After publishing Nebulosas, Amália became engaged in a bitter dispute as it "was attributed to a 'young man' who borrowed her name".[4]

Amália became active in the abolitionist movement and was credited, along with Maria Firmina dos Reis, for her literary production that challenged racist ideologies in Brazil.[5] She published Miragem, Nelumbia and O Romance da Mulher que Amou. Driven by strong social sensitivity, she fought against women's oppression. A women's rights activist, her 1892 book A Mulher do Século XIX (Women of the Nineteenth Century), was a call to women to fight for their rights.[6]

Some of her writing was published in a work by Antônio Simões dos Reis.[7] Critical study of her work has been done by Christina Ramalho in Um espelho para Narcisa: Reflexos de uma voz romantica (1999).[8] This book also discussed her life.[8]

Selected works

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  • Nebulosas, 1872
  • Miragem
  • Nelumbia
  • O Romance da Mulher que Amou
  • A Mulher do Século XIX

References

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  1. ^ a b Dijk, Teun a Van (2020). Antiracist Discourse in Brazil: From Abolition to Affirmative Action. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. p. 68. ISBN 978-1-7936-1548-0.
  2. ^ Hahner 1990, p. 114.
  3. ^ Bhattacharya, Asoke (2011). Paulo Freire: Rousseau of the Twentieth Century. Rotterdam: Springer Science & Business Media. pp. 23–24. ISBN 978-94-6091-514-7.
  4. ^ Quinlan 1991, p. 43.
  5. ^ Trindade, Luiz Valério P. (2020). No Laughing Matter: Race Joking and Resistance in Brazilian Social Media. Wilmington, Delaware: Vernon Press. p. 58. ISBN 978-1-64889-080-2.
  6. ^ "Narcisa Amália". Secretaria de Estado de Cultura, Rio de Janeiro. Retrieved 11 April 2016.
  7. ^ Hahner 1990, p. 118, 248.
  8. ^ a b Pinto 2004, p. 41.

General references

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  • Narcisa Amália de Antônio Simões dos Reis, Organização Simões, 1949.
  • Panorama da poesia brasileira de Antônio Soares Amora, Edgard Cavalheiro, 1959, p. 296.
  • Mulher brasileira, Fundação Carlos Chagas, 1981, p. 355.
  • Elas, as pioneiras do Brasil: a memorável saga dessas mulheres de Hebe C Boa-Viagem A Costa, 2005, p. 173.

Bibliography

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