Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: Glorifying the Needle and Thread
- 1 On Pins and Needles: Hypermodernity and Hyperclothing Ourselves
- 2 The Perfect Pattern: Dressmaking as a Political Tool in María Dueñas’s El Tiempo Entre Costuras
- 3 Lining with Surrealism: Spaces and Stitches in César Aira’s La Costurera Y El Viento
- 4 Unraveling Gender and Sexual Confinements in Pedro Lemebel’s Tengo Miedo Torero
- 5 An Honest Measuring Tape: Peripheral Places in Frances de Pontes Peebles’s The Seamstress
- 6 Tailoring Peace and Purpose: Sartorial Representations in Children’s Literature
- Conclusion: Final Notions: Toward Consumer Consciousness
- Works Cited
- Index
5 - An Honest Measuring Tape: Peripheral Places in Frances de Pontes Peebles’s The Seamstress
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 February 2021
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: Glorifying the Needle and Thread
- 1 On Pins and Needles: Hypermodernity and Hyperclothing Ourselves
- 2 The Perfect Pattern: Dressmaking as a Political Tool in María Dueñas’s El Tiempo Entre Costuras
- 3 Lining with Surrealism: Spaces and Stitches in César Aira’s La Costurera Y El Viento
- 4 Unraveling Gender and Sexual Confinements in Pedro Lemebel’s Tengo Miedo Torero
- 5 An Honest Measuring Tape: Peripheral Places in Frances de Pontes Peebles’s The Seamstress
- 6 Tailoring Peace and Purpose: Sartorial Representations in Children’s Literature
- Conclusion: Final Notions: Toward Consumer Consciousness
- Works Cited
- Index
Summary
The caged bird sings with a fearful trill, of things unknown, but longed for still, and his tune is heard on the distant hill, for the caged bird sings of freedom.
(Maya Angelou, “Caged Bird”)El amor es también el trabajo profesional hecho con amor, la posibilidad de desarrollar hasta el máximo de las capacidades humanas.
Love is also professional work done with love, the possibility of developing human capacities to the maximum.
(Ferré, “La autenticidad de la mujer en el arte” 415)Good seamstresses felt an attachment to their projects and spent days trying to fix them. Great ones didn't do this. They were brave enough to start over. To admit they’d been wrong, throw away their doomed attempts, and begin again.
(de Pontes Peebles 9)In the year 2000, Rede Globo, renowned for elaborate and internationally consumed telenovela productions, celebrated Brazil's quincentennial anniversary with the highly successful television series A Muralha. The period piece recounts the hegemonic momentum forged by overzealous explorers and Jesuit priests upon encountering the terrain's native populations, as well as the physically and mentally taxing reality of the geographical protagonist: the sertão, the massive backlands of northeastern Brazil, a topography with a relentless dearth of rainfall and subsequent drought. The explorers, clothed in restrictive armor, accompanied by a handful of female protagonists whose cumbersome, mud-covered dresses prove impractical, face numerous challenges that highlight the gritty physical demands the geography places upon those seeking to survive within it.
Frances de Pontes Peebles was born in Pernambuco, Brazil, and though raised in Miami, Florida, her novels foreground the historical settings of the land of her birth. The novelist, who thoroughly researches the historical backgrounds of her works, acknowledges the overarching stereotypes involving her birthplace:
Brazil often gets simplified into three common perceptions: the Amazon, violent favelas, and a continuous carnival party. Obviously, Brazil is much more than any of those things. It is as vast and as heterogeneous as the United States, if not more so. There is no one Brazilian identity. There is no one Brazilian culture.
(interview with Alex Espinoza)Her first novel, The Seamstress (2009), breaks with these tropes and instead revisits the sertão, focusing on the early twentieth century when cangaceiros, bands of poor peasants, roamed the backlands, exhibiting an anti-government stance to the ignored social plights of the region's inhabitants.
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- Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2021