Language and the Many Histories of Brazilian Inequality

Authors

  • Brodwyn Fischer Northwestern University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21471/jls.v9i0.248

Keywords:

Language, Ideology, Inequality, Race, Politics

Abstract

There are numerous historical critiques of elitist educational policies in Brazil, as well as studies of the racial and gender dynamics of education, and scholars have routinely lamented the historical lack of access to schooling among the Brazilian poor. But surprisingly few historians have taken on language and education as durable categories of inequality—created, recognized, legitimized, and acted upon over many generations, constitutive elements in Brazil’s constellation of social difference. This is especially remarkable given the rich and repeated emphasis on language, literacy, and education that characterized debates about Brazilian inequality in the century after independence.

Author Biography

Brodwyn Fischer, Northwestern University

Brodwyn Fischer is Associate Professor of History at Northwestern University. She is the author of A Poverty of Rights: Citizenship and Inequality in Twentieth Century Rio de Janeiro (2008) and has published on issues of race, criminal justice, and urban inequality. She is currently working on a book about the uses and politics of social and racial inequality in Brazil from the late 19th to the mid
20th century.

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Published

2011-10-03

Issue

Vol. 9 (2011): ellipsis

Section

Review Essays

License

Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.