Contact us on (02) 8445 2300
For all customer service and order enquiries

Woodslane Online Catalogues

9780801867644 Academic Inspection Copy

Mothers of Heroes and Martyrs

Gender Identity Politics in Nicaragua, 1979-1999
Description
Table of
Contents
Reviews
Google
Preview
How did a group of overwhelmingly poor, older women in a third-world country emerge to become a powerful force in their country's politics? Founded during the Nicaraguan revolution, the Mothers of Heroes and Martyrs of Matagalpa comprises women who supported the revolution but did not carry guns; who, in their words, gave up their loved ones to the struggle. In this book Lorraine Bayard de Volo focuses on this group to reveal what she calls ''the dominant but rarely examined maternal identity politics of revolution, war, and democratization.'' Dividing Nicaraguan politics (1979-99) into four periods, Bayard de Volo uses both macro- and micro-levels of analysis to capture the dialectical relationship between large-scale political processes and the ''micropolitics'' of collective action. She shows how Sandinistas and anti-Sandinistas mobilized both mothers and maternal imagery and in turn analyzes how this imagery was adopted and manipulated by the Mothers of Heroes and Martyrs. Employing a feminist Gramscian approach to address the gendered nature of cultural politics and collective identity, the author shows how, in the battle to capture Nicaraguan hearts and minds, both sides relied primarily on maternal images of women. Such ''mobilizing identities'' propelled women into unprecedented levels of collective action, yet at the same time channeled them away from feminist priorities.


Contents:



Preface

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

Introduction

Chapter 1: ""We Want a Free Country for Our Children,"" 1977-1984

Chapter 2: Movement as Symbol: The Mothers of Matagalpa, 1979-1984

Chapter 3: The Priorities of War: Deferring Feminism, (Re) drafting Motherhood, 1984-1990

Chapter 4: The Latent and the Visible: The Mothers of Matagalpa in Two Dimensions, 1984-1990

Chapter 5: From a War of Bullets to a War of the Stomach: Discursive and Organizational Strategies and Regime Transition. 1990-1994

Chapter 6: Testing the Limits of Maternal Identity: Regime Change and Expanded Membership, 1990-1994

Chapter 7: Voice, Agency, and Identity: Counting the Mixed Blessings of Revolution and Maternal Identity Politics



Conclusion

Appendix

Notes

Bibliography

Index

""This book is rich in detail and description, making it one of the best analyses of maternal gender politics in Nicaragua to date.""

Google Preview content