Discovering women's voices : the lives of modern Japanese silk mill workers in their own words

At a time when concern with the exploitation of young women in the assembly plants of developing countries is still a major social issue for gender and development specialists, Discovering Women's Voices. The Lives of Modern Japanese Silk Mill Workers in Their Own Words, offers a vivid account of the lives of women who formed modern Japan's 'reserve army' for textile mills. By analyzing works songs and oral testimonies of former silk-reeling operatives about their lives in the factory and in their native countryside, it challenges the long-standing assumption describing their history as merely exploitative, convincingly showing that factory life could appear as a window of opportunity or at least a lesser evil to workers born in rural underprivileged families.

List of Illustrations and Tables Notes on Contributors Introduction Gunnar Hardarson and Karl G. Johansson PART 1 Educational and Cultural Context 1 Canon, Dominican and Brother The Life and Times of Jon Halldorsson in Bergen Christian Etheridge 2 Bishop Jon Halldorsson and Clerical Culture in 14th-Century Iceland Vidar Palsson PART 2 Dominican Exempla and Saga Literature 3 Bishop Jon Halldorsson and 14th- Century Innovations in Saga Narrative The Case of Egils saga einhenda ok Asmundar berserkjabana Gottskalk Jensson 4 Holy Ministry in Old Norse aevintyri Hjalti Snaer AEgisson 5 Clari saga and Its Continental Siblings A Comparative Literary Approach to an Old Problem Vedis Ragnheidardottir PART 3 Manuscripts and Illuminations 6 Jon Halldorsson and Law Manuscripts of Western Iceland c. 1320-40 Stefan Drechsler 7 AM 657 a-b 4 Degrees and the Mouvance of Medieval Texts Roles and Functions in the Transmission of Texts in a Manuscript Culture Karl G. Johansson PART 4 Music and Liturgy 8 Liturgical Change and Liturgical Plurality in the Province of Nidaros New Light on the Ordo Nidrosiensis Ecclesiae Astrid Marner 9 Some Reflections on the Liturgy for St THorlakr Gisela Attinger PART 5 Manuscript Practice and Multiple Careers 10 Elucidating Charter Practice and Administrative Literacy in Four Works by Einarr Haflidason Embla Aae 11 Music and Manuscripts in Skalholt and THingeyrar Gunnar Hardarson Appendix 1: The Account of Bishop Jon Halldorsson (Jon's thattr) Appendix 2: Bishop Hakon of Bergen to Bishop Jon of Skalholt Appendix 3: The Booklist of Bishop Arni Sigurdsson Appendix 4: Contents of am 671 4 Degrees (by Stefan Drechsler) Index