Sadlier's study of women writers in Portugal after the 1974 revolution is a useful contribution to a neglected European literature, in which women are making a forceful contribution; and it is one of the few sources of such information in English. . . . Works analyzed include the famous Novas Cartas Portuguesas (Lisbon, 1972) by Maria Isabel Barreno, Maria Teresa Horta, and Maria Velho da Costa, Xerazade e os outros (Lisbon, 1964) by Fernanda Botelho, Lidia Jorge's O Dia dos Prodigios (2nd ed., 1980), Helia Correia's Montedemo (Lisbon, 1983), and Teolindo Gersao's O Silencio (1981). These studies are followed by an appendix on the background of women's rights and feminism in Portugal. Although Sadlier has chosen these works because of their common tradition of literary modernism and aesthetic experimentation, her readings are descriptive rather than theoretical and provide an excellent introduction to representative works and themes of major contemporary women writers. Choice Contemporary Portugal offers a fascinating mixture of social revolution, literary experiment, and feminist practice. Since the revolution in 1974, the country has produced a large number of writings by and about women. In fact, for the first time in Portuguese history, there are at least as many women as men writing books. The Question of How: Women Writers and New Portuguese Literature presents an analysis of texts by the Three Marias, Fernanda Botelho, Lidia Jorge, Helia Correia, and Teolinda Gersao. The first book to be written in English on contemporary Portuguese women writers, it investigates what Portuguese literary women have to say about their culture. In addition to showing how specific works of fiction are inflected by gender and ideology, Sadlier also presents a brief historical account of feminism in Portugal. The only book of its kind in the field, The Question of How: Women Writers and the New Portuguese Literature will be of interest to both students and specialists of Hispanic literature, West European studies, Women's studies, literary theory, and criticism.

Since the late nineteenth century, Brazilians have turned to documentaries to explain their country to themselves and to the world. In a magisterial history covering one hundred years of cinema, Darlene J. Sadlier identifies Brazilians' unique contributions to a diverse genre while exploring how that genre has, in turn, contributed to the making and remaking of Brazil. A Century of Brazilian Documentary Film is a comprehensive tour of feature and short films that have charted the social and political story of modern Brazil. The Amazon appears repeatedly and vividly. Sometimes-as in a prize-winning 1922 feature-the rainforest is a galvanizing site of national pride; at other times, the Amazon has been a focus for land-reform and Indigenous-rights activists. Other key documentary themes include Brazil's swings from democracy to dictatorship, tensions between cosmopolitanism and rurality, and shifting attitudes toward race and gender. Sadlier also provides critical perspectives on aesthetics and media technology, exploring how documentaries inspired dramatic depictions of poverty and migration in the country's Northeast and examining Brazilians' participation in streaming platforms that have suddenly democratized filmmaking.

Tomas Gutierrez Alea's Memories of Underdevelopment (1968) is a classic of Cuban revolutionary culture, and is hailed as a prime example of a radical style of 1960s political filmmaking that became known worldwide as Latin American "new cinema." Darlene J. Sadlier's detailed study approaches this much-written-about film from a new perspective. Her analysis situates the film in its historical context, considering how Cuban political history affected and informed the production of the film, particularly its use of archival footage. She discusses the film as an adaptation of Edmundo Desnoes's novel Memorias del subdesarrollo (1965), exploring how the novel itself is "re-written" in significant ways by the film. Sadlier goes on to analyse the curious opening of the film on an outdoor scene of Afro-Cubans dancing to the "new" music of Pello del Afrokan, arguing that this opening scene prefaces the film's exploration of both class and race. She focuses on the unique style of the film, particularly the use of voiceover, music and documentary footage to show how the themes of ennui, isolation, writing, and remembering are depicted. In doing so, she highlights the film's lasting impact and its role in defining Latin American "new cinema".

Like their Hollywood counterparts, Latin American film and TV melodramas have always been popular and highly profitable. The first of its kind, this anthology engages in a serious study of the aesthetics and cultural implications of Latin American melodramas. Written by some of the major figures in Latin American film scholarship, the studies range across seventy years of movies and television within a transnational context, focusing specifically on the period known as the "Golden Age" of melodrama, the impact of classic melodrama on later forms, and more contemporary forms of melodrama. An introductory essay examines current critical and theoretical debates on melodrama and places the essays within the context of Latin American film and media scholarship. Contributors are Luisela Alvaray, Mariana Baltar, Catherine L. Benamou, Marvin D'Lugo, Paula Felix-Didier, Andres Levinson, Gilberto Perez, Darlene J. Sadlier, Cid Vasconcelos, and Ismail Xavier.

Let us consider an excerpt: On the the signs of Last Judgment Matthew 24 Q. How shall the last day come? A. It shall surprise all the world. For it shall catch, as in a net, all who dwell on the surface of the earth. Q. Shall men have no warning, then, or the coming or that day? A. Yes; they shall be warned by many preceding signs. But, as it was in the time of the deluge, when men neglected the warnings of Noah, so shall it be in those latter days, when men shall likewise neglect the warnings which God shall give them by those signs. St. Matt. Xxiv 37 Q. What shall those signs be, A. lst. There shall be wars, famines, plagues, and earthquakes, in divers places. 2d. The Gospel shall be preached throughout the earth. 3d. There shall arise false Christs and false prophets who shall work great prodigies and do marvellous things; so as even to deceive the elect, if that were possible. 4th. Faith shall be enfeebled, and the charity of many shall have grown cold. 5th. Enoch and Elias shall come to preach penance, and their preaching shall convert the Jews. Enoch, taken up in the year of the world 987; and Elias, in 3108. 6th. Then shall Antichrist appear, and his reign shall be three years and a half. Q. Are these all the signs which shall precede the last judgment? A. No; there shall be others still. Q. What shall they be? A. 1st. The sun shall be darkened. 2d. The moon shall withhold her light. 3d. The stars shall fall from heaven. 4th. The powers of heaven shall be moved. 5th. The sea shall make a terrific noise, by the roaring of its waves. 6th. All things shall be consumed by fire. Q. What shall become of men at the sigh of these things? A. They shall wither away with fear, in expectation of what is to come upon them. Q. What does Our Lord say on this subject? A. 1st. Watch ye, therefore, praying at all times, that you may be accounted worthy to escape all those things that are to come, and to stand before the Son of man. 2d. Take heed to yourselves, lest perhaps your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and the cares of this life. 3d. But, for you, said he to his apostles, when these things begin to come to pass, look up, and lift your heads; because your redemption is at hand.