Women Journalists in the Brazilian Mainstream Press

A nuanced and complex portrayal of female voices which have long been silenced, offering a fresh perspective on the history of Brazilian journalism and restoring women's rightful place in Brazil's cultural memory.

This book examines the groundbreaking contributions of Maria Amalia de Carvalho, Julia Lopes de Almeida, Emilia Moncorvo Bandeira de Melo (pseudonym Carmen Dolores), and Maria Benedita Bormann (pseudonym Delia) in Brazil's mainstream press, focusing on their writings in the influential newspaper O Pais between 1884 and 1912. Employing psychoanalysis, gender studies, media theory and literary criticism, the chapters in this book reveal how these four writers cultivated a collective intellectual network and how their columns became sites of resistance, challenging dominant narratives and asserting women's voices in a male-dominated public sphere. Yet despite their significant influence, their legacies have been marginalised in traditional literary histories. This book not only restores their rightful place in Brazil's cultural memory but also interrogates the exclusionary mechanisms that have long obscured women's contributions to the nation's literary system. A vital reassessment of press history, this book demands a more inclusive understanding of Brazil's journalistic and intellectual heritage, one that properly recognises women as active participants in shaping the Brazilian literary system.