Alterity inside the Blogosphere: Brazilian Women in Germany - Yara Castanheira - University of Hamburg
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Alterity inside the Blogosphere: Brazilian Women in Germany
(Brazil) “Alterity inside the Blogosphere: Brazilian Women in Germany”
yaracastanheira(at)gmail.com
ABSTRACT: Are there connections among cultural distinctions, the field of tension generated by them and the self-perception? This is a central question which this paper pursues within the framework of cultural studies. To do this, theoretical approaches to alterity and ‘otherness’ were critically analyzed and put in connection with conceptions of the ‘self’ and of the other as well as with constructions of authenticity and identity.
The object of this research is the blogosphere, to be more precise, the blogs of six Brazilian women residents in Germany. The analysis goes from their reasons to start a blog, passing through the blogs’ names, the bloggers’ self-presentations, the content provided online up to the discourses used by the bloggers.
The data evaluation was based on the following main categories, created from the reading of the blogs: self-images; images of the other; ways to protect and stabilize both types of images; and reflections on life “in-between Worlds”. Which stereotypes do these women use to build either self-images or images of the other? How do they protect those stereotypes against daily experiences? These questions form an essential part of the investigation.
BIO: Yara Castanheira is a cinema buff and currently works as a translator and a cultural producer in Berlin. She received an Erasmus Mundus Masters of Arts in Media, Communication and Cultural Studies from the Universities of Kassel (Germany) and London (England). She also holds a BA in Communication and a Journalist degree from the University of Minas Gerais (Brazil).