Stephen Sondheim’s 1979 award-winning musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street was produced during a time of great political and economic uncertainty in New York City. Although not overtly political, the themes of urban crisis and class inequality that birthed the original legend of Sweeney Todd in Industrial Revolution London continued to play a large role within the modern musical, reflecting leftist political concerns at large. The main political argument within the work is the critique of class hierarchies created by capitalism and how the upper classes abuse the lower classes, ie. how Judge Turpin uses his power to abuse Sweeney Todd and the grave consequences of such actions. Less obvious, however, are the importance of gender hierarchy and the objectification of women within this anti-capitalist critique. This paper focuses on the character of Johanna and the three songs sung about her by the three main male leads. These songs provide a case study of how gendered objectification and commodification play a significant role in the overall Marxist critique intrinsic to the musical and the Sweeney Todd legend overall. The work’s rootedness in the anti-capitalist critique of the New Left in the 1970s and the concurrent rise of Marxist and socialist feminism provide clues to understanding the context and meaning behind the violent treatment of women within the musical as an extension of the anti-capitalist critique that is fundamental to the work. / text

Drawing on Foucault’s conception of “subjugated knowledges,” this thesis attempts to articulate a subjugated anti-colonial reading of Marx so as to interrogate the discursive modifications effected within Marxism after Marx, specifically as those modifications relate to the conditions of possibility regulating Marxist understandings of race and colonialism. This genealogy proceeds by offering a critical re-examination of the ways in which Marxists of the Second International theorized a “modern,” “scientific” account of imperialism, one that expunged important insights into the nature of colonial-capitalism at the same time it established a new knowledge of capitalist expansion and the world market. This Leninist schematization of imperialism is theorized in relation to “deraceination,” a neologism arising from this project and describing the manifold discursive processes by which Marxism was uprooted from its grounding materialist premises while it underwent an ideological de-racialization that eschewed discussions of race and Indigeneity in Marxist political economy. After this critique of the Leninist schematization of imperialism, deraceination is elaborated by revisiting the early history of Marxist feminism, leading to the conclusion that the historical subjugation of the basic materiality of race and gender was accomplished in no small part through the definition of “the woman question.” By liberating this subjugated trajectory of Marxist thought, this thesis argues for the necessity of reincorporating an anti-colonial reading of Marx into our understandings of Marxism and Marxist feminism.

No description available.

Aim: The aim of this thesis is to elucidate the effects of gender, age, and class in witch hunts in the sixteenth and seventeenth century in Western Europe from a feminist perspective. It also aims to understand the perception of these witch hunts in our present society. It centers poor, old, women who were accused of witchcraft. Methods: a literature review will be performed to collect literature on witch hunts. Secondary analysis of this literature will be performed using an intersectional theoretical framework. Results: the spread of christianity through Europe brought a new political ideology that divided labour into sexes. The role of women was reduced to childbearing and household tasks. Medicine became institutionalised. There was no protection for poor people or aged people in the new political ideology. Conclusion: the new political ideology affected poor, old women most: they were no longer able to fulfil childbearing duties, could no longer practice as healers or midwives, and were not protected by the state. Due to the misogynistic, ageist and classist values at the time, their expressions of frustration could then be interpreted as witchery. Moreover, lookism could have been a factor in witch accusations.

[pt] A partir do questionamento de quem é a classe trabalhadora atual, esta pesquisa se propõe a compreender e analisar o trabalho informal sob a ótica das mulheres camelôs. Para isso, foram realizadas entrevistas semiestruturadas com quatro mulheres ambulantes da cidade do Rio de Janeiro, a fim de perceber as dinâmicas sociais entre elas e o espaço público. Assentando a discussão na necessidade de se atentar aos papéis de cuidado, impostos social e historicamente às mulheres, esta pesquisa atualiza as discussões a partir do contexto da pandemia de coronavírus. A região central do Rio de Janeiro, espaço delimitado para a pesquisa, ao mesmo tempo que é marcado por disputas entre a classe trabalhadora e o poder público, influenciado pelas elites dominantes, aparece, nesta pesquisa, como palco de construção de autonomia, liberdade e cidadania pelas camelôs, caracterizando-se também em campo político. Assim, esta pesquisa procura investigar as práticas coletivas, em um contexto individualizante, muitas vezes imposto pelo sistema neoliberal, percebendo exemplos de resistência coletivas e práticas que podem ser denominadas feministas. A pesquisa adotou como enquadramento teórico as teorias da reprodução social desenvolvidas pelos autores feministas-marxistas da chamada Teoria da Reprodução Social (TRS) e da intelectual negra Angela Davis, buscando realizar uma leitura sobre quem é classe trabalhadora atual, não deixando de fora uma investigação generificada e racializada, além de uma análise pautada na realidade concreta enfrentada pelas sujeitas desta pesquisa, não apartando teoria e prática. / [en] Based on the questioning of who is the current working class, this research aims to understand and analyze informal work from the perspective of women street vendors. For this, semi-structured interviews were carried out with four women street vendors in the city of Rio de Janeiro, to understand the social dynamics between them and the public space. Basing the discussion on the need to pay attention to the roles of care, socially and historically imposed on women, this research updates the discussions from the context of the coronavirus pandemic. The central region of Rio de Janeiro, the specific area of the research, concurrently marked by disputes between working classes and government, influenced by the ruling elites, appears in this research, as the setting of construction of autonomy, freedom and citizenship for the women vendors, featuring the region as well as a political field. Therefore, this research aims to investigate the collective practices, in an individualizing context, often imposed by the neoliberal system, noticing examples of collective resistance and practical actions that can be denominated feminists. This paper adopted as its theoretical framework the theories of social reproduction developed by feminist-marxists authors known as Social Reproduction Theory (SRT) and from the black intellectual Angela Davis, pircing an understanding about who comprises the current working class, not leaving out a gendered and racialized investigation, in addition to an analysis based on the concrete reality faced by the subjects of this research, not separating theory and practice.

Orientador: Juliana Campregher Pasqualini / Resumo: A presente pesquisa promove o encontro de dois grandes autores, Heleieth Saffioti e Daniil Elkonin, uma socióloga brasileira e um psicólogo soviético, tecendo diálogos em torno da necessidade da incorporação da crítica feminista marxista pela psicologia histórico-cultural. Tal teoria psicológica desde sua origem se constituiu como uma ciência marxista – porque não desconsiderou as contradições das classes sociais e a exploração de uma sobre a outra no regime capitalista. Além disso, se propôs a análise materialista histórico e dialética dos indivíduos a fim de atingir o complexo fenômeno do desenvolvimento psicológico a partir da concreticidade da vida em sociedade. O mote desse estudo foi a perspectiva de que essa ciência explicitamente herdeira da tradição marxista possa também reivindicar-se – e constituir-se como – ciência feminista, abrangendo, em suas análises e formulações, a organização de gênero (e de raça) na sociedade patriarcal-capitalista, que descreve uma relação social concreta de dominaçãoexploração entre homens e mulheres. O objetivo geral que guiou a investigação foi explorar possibilidades de aproximação entre a psicologia histórico-cultural do desenvolvimento e o feminismo marxista de Heleieth Saffioti, focalizando a teorização de Daniil Elkonin sobre a idade pré-escolar. Para tanto, foram delineados como objetivos específicos: i) identificar implicações do feminismo marxista para o estudo do desenvolvimento infantil na idade préescolar; ii) identificar co... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: This research promotes the meeting of two great authors, Heleieth Saffioti and Daniil Elkonin, a Brazilian sociologist and a Soviet psychologist, weaving dialogues around the need to incorporate Marxist feminist criticism into historical-cultural psychology. Such a psychological theory since its origin was constituted as a Marxist science – because it did not disregard the contradictions of the social classes and the exploitation of one over the other in the capitalist regime. In addition, a historical and dialectical materialistic analysis of individuals was proposed in order to achieve the complex phenomenon of psychological development based on the concreteness of life in society. The motto of this study was the perspective that this science explicitly heir to the Marxist tradition can also claim – and constitute itself – feminist science, encompassing, in its analyzes and formulations, the organization of gender (and race) in society patriarchal-capitalist, which describes a concrete social relationship of domination-exploitation between men and women. The general objective that guided the investigation was to explore possibilities of approximation between the historical-cultural developmental psychology and the Marxist feminism of Heleieth Saffioti, focusing on Daniil Elkonin's theorization about preschool age. Therefore, the following objectives were outlined: i) to identify implications of Marxist feminism for the study of child development in pre-school age; ii) to id... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Resumen: Esta investigación promueve el encuentro de dos grandes autores, Heleieth Saffioti y Daniil Elkonin, una socióloga brasileña y uno psicólogo soviético, tejiendo diálogos en torno a la necesidad de incorporar la crítica feminista marxista en la psicología histórico-cultural. Tal teoría psicológica desde su origen se constituyó como una ciencia marxista, porque no ignoraste las contradicciones de las clases sociales y la explotación de una sobre la otra en el régimen capitalista. Además, se propuso un análisis materialista histórico y dialéctico de los individuos para lograr el complejo fenómeno del desarrollo psicológico basado en la concreción de la vida en sociedad. El lema de este estudio fue la perspectiva de que esta ciencia explícitamente heredera de la tradición marxista también puede reclamar, y constituirse a sí misma, como ciencia feminista, que abarca, en sus análisis y formulaciones, la organización del género (y la raza) en la sociedad patriarcal-capitalista, que describe una relación social concreta de dominación-explotación entre hombres y mujeres. El objetivo general que guió la investigación fue explorar las posibilidades de aproximación entre la psicología del desarrollo históricocultural y el feminismo marxista de Heleieth Saffioti, centrándose en la teorización de Daniil Elkonin sobre la edad preescolar. Por lo tanto, se delinearon los siguientes objetivos: i) identificar las implicaciones del feminismo marxista para el estudio del desarrollo infantil en la... (Resumen completo clicar acceso eletrônico abajo) / Mestre