Intimacy at work: servant and employer relations in Que horas ela volta? (The second mother). Issue 3 (2nd September 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Sá, Lúcia
• Is Part Of: Journal of Iberian and Latin American studies. Volume 24:Issue 3(2018)
• Page Start: 311
• Page End: 327
• Publication Date: 2018-09-02
• Subjects: Cordiality -- maids -- intimacy -- Brazilian cinema -- Anna Muylaert; Spanish literature -- History and criticism -- Periodicals; Portuguese literature -- History and criticism -- Periodicals; Latin American literature -- History and criticism -- Periodicals; Civilization, Hispanic -- Periodicals; Portugal -- Civilization -- Periodicals; Spain -- Periodicals; Portugal -- Periodicals; Latin America -- Periodicals; 306.0946
• DOI: 10.1080/14701847.2018.1531225
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1470-1847

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This chapter examines servant/employer relationships in Anna Muylaert's film Que horas ela volta? ( The Second Mother, 2015). Written in the first person by someone who locates herself as a white, middle-class Brazilian from humble origins who has lived abroad for nearly 30 years, the chapter focuses on the sense of discomfort caused on her by the film and by Brazilian middle-class reliance on domestic servants, whilst at the same time analysing the role played by intimacy and servitude in the film. In dialogue with Sérgio Buarque de Holanda's definition(s) of "cordialidade" (and with later discussions of it), the chapter examines what "cordialidade" can mean in the context of employers/domestic servants relationships in contemporary Brazil.