Abstract

MICK, Carola. Discourses by the oppressed: critical analysis of the discourses of Peruvian maids in Lima. Pap. poblac [online]. 2010, vol.16, n.63, pp. 187-218. ISSN 1405-7425.

This article is based on 32 interviews, in the capital of Peru, Lima, with domestic workers (all women) who migrated from other regions of the country. It analyzes their migration experiences taking into account their current situation, social and professional, as a social problem with a semiotic aspect. It investigates the language-power relationship from a critical discourse-analytical bottom-up-perspective, focusing on how domestic workers construct their identity and social reality, relating to basic ideological structures which define them as Oppressed', and choosing different strategies in view of them. With a combination of the methods of conversation and discourse analysis while focusing on membership categorization processes, it shows how domestic workers transform ideologies in this process, contributing to social change and thus exercising influence and power in discourse.

Keywords : intra-national migration; domestic service; ideologies; identity; Peru.