Table Of ContentGender, Generations, and
Communism in Central and
Eastern Europe and Beyond
Communism in twentieth-century Europe is predominantly narrated as
a totalitarian movement and/or regime. This book aims to go beyond
this narrative and provide an alternative framework to describe the com-
munist past. This reframing is possible thanks to the concepts of gener-
ation and gender, which are used in the book as analytical categories
in an intersectional overlap. The publication covers twentieth-century
Poland, Czechoslovakia/Czech Republic, the Soviet Union/Russia, for-
mer Yugoslavia, Turkish communities in West Germany, Italy, and Cuba
(as a comparative point of reference). It provides a theoretical frame and
overview chapters on several important gender and generation narratives
about communism, anticommunism, and postcommunism. Its starting
point is the belief that although methodological reflection on commu-
nism, as well as on generations and gender, is conducted extensively in
contemporary research, the overlapping of these three terms is still rare.
The main focus in the first part is on methodological issues. The second
part features studies which depict the possibility of generational-gender
interpretations of history. The third part is informed by biographical
perspectives. The last part shows how the problem of generations and
gender is staged via the medium of literature and how it can be narrated.
Anna Artwin´ska is a Junior Professor of Slavic Literature and Culture
Studies and Chair of the Center for Women’s and Gender Studies at
the University of Leipzig, Germany. Her main research interests are the
memory of communism, postcatastrophic representation of the Shoah,
the concept of generation, auto/biographical writing and gender, and
postcolonial studies.
Agnieszka Mrozik is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Liter-
ary Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IBL PAN) in Warsaw,
Poland. She is affiliated with two research teams: The Centre for Cul-
tural and Literary Studies of Communism, and the Archives of Women.
Her main research interests are communism and gender studies, cul-
tural history of women and women’s movement in Central and Eastern
Europe, women’s life writing and literature, critical analysis of media
discourse and popular culture.
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Agency and Norms in the Swedish Realm, 1350–1450
Charlotte Cederbom
39 Courtship, Marriage and Marriage Breakdown
Approaches from the History of Emotion
Katie Barclay, Jeffrey Meek and Andrea Thomson
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and Gender Relations in Europe
Edited by Sandra Brée and Saskia Hin
41 Deviant Maternity
Illegitimacy in Wales, c. 1680–1800
Angela Joy Muir
42 Gender, Generations, and Communism in Central
and Eastern Europe and Beyond
Edited by Anna Artwińska and Agnieszka Mrozik
For more information about this series, please visit: https://www. routledge.
com/Routledge-Research-in-Gender-and-History/book-series/SE0422
Gender, Generations, and
Communism in Central and
Eastern Europe and Beyond
Edited by
Anna Artwińska and
Agnieszka Mrozik
First published 2021
by Routledge
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Artwińska, Anna, editor. | Mrozik, Agnieszka, editor.
Title: Gender, generations, and communism in Central and
Eastern Europe and beyond / edited by Anna Artwińska and
Agnieszka Mrozik.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2020. |
Series: Routledge research in gender and history | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020011181 (print) | LCCN
2020011182 (ebook) | ISBN 9780367423230 (hbk) |
ISBN 9780367823528 (ebk)
Subjects: LCSH: Communism—Europe, Eastern. |
Communism—Europe, Central. | Post-communism—Europe,
Eastern. | Post-communism—Europe, Central. | Europe,
Eastern—Social conditions. | Europe, Central—Social
conditions.
Classification: LCC HX240.7.A6 G46 2020 (print) |
LCC HX240.7.A6 (ebook) | DDC 335.430947—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020011181
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020011182
ISBN: 9780367423230 (hbk)
ISBN: 9780367823528 (ebk)
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Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
ANNA ARTWIŃSKA AND AGNIESZKA MROZIK
PART I
The Logic of Gender and Generation(s): Theoretical
Approaches 7
1 Generational and Gendered Memory of Communism in
Central and Eastern Europe: Methodological Perspectives
and Political Challenges 9
ANNA ARTWIŃSKA AND AGNIESZKA MROZIK
2 Acting and Memory, Hope and Guilt: The Bond of
Generations in Arendt, Benjamin, Heine, and Freud 29
SIGRID WEIGEL
PART II
Generations and Gender in Historical Contexts:
Comparative Case Studies 43
3 Communism, Left Feminism, and Generations in
the 1930s: The Case of Yugoslavia 45
ISIDORA GRUBAČKI
4 Communisms, Generations, and Waves: The Cases
of Italy, Yugoslavia, and Cuba 66
CHIARA BONFIGLIOLI
vi Contents
5 Generations of Italian Communist Women and the
Making of a Women’s Rights Agenda in the
Cold War (1945–68): Historiography, Memory, and
New Archival Evidence 82
ELOISA BETTI
6 The Making of Turkish Migrant Left Feminism and
Political Generations in the Ruhr, West Germany (1975–90) 102
SERCAN ÇINAR
PART III
Women’s Biographical Experiences and Communism 123
7 “Old” Women and “Old” Revolution: The Role of
Gender and Generation in Postwar Polish Communist
Women’s Political Biographies 125
NATALIA JARSKA
8 Biographical Experience and Knowledge Production:
Women Sociologists and Gender Issues in
Communist Poland 146
BARBARA KLICH-KLUCZEWSKA AND KATARZYNA
STAŃCZAK-WIŚLICZ
9 Without Tradition and Without Female Generation?
The Case of Czech Artist Ester Krumbachová 166
LIBUŠE HECZKOVÁ AND KATEŘINA SVATOŇOVÁ
PART IV
Aesthetic Representations of Gendered Generations in
Communism and Beyond 195
10 Girls from the Polish Youth Union: (Dis)remembrance of
the Generation 197
AGNIESZKA MROZIK
11 “We’re Easy to Spot”: Soviet Generation(s) after Soviet
Era and the Invention of the Self in Svetlana Alexievich’s
Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets 227
ANNA ARTWIŃSKA
Contents vii
12 Entering Gray Zones: Questions of Female Identity,
Political Commitment, and Personal Choices in Jiřina
Šiklová’s Memoir of Life under Socialism and Beyond 247
ANJA TIPPNER
13 Gender, Generational Conflict, and Communism: Tonia
Lechtman’s Story 263
ANNA MÜLLER
Conclusion: From “Communism as Male Generational
History” to a More Inclusive Narrative 283
FRANCISCA DE HAAN
Notes on Contributors 289
Index 297
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Acknowledgments
Many people and institutions have helped us prepare this book for print.
We would like to thank Jennifer Morrow and Max Novick of Routledge
for seeing this publication through, Francisca de Haan of Central Eu-
ropean University in Budapest and anonymous reviewers for their valu-
able input that has helped us improve this book, and Maja Jaros for her
professional linguistic support. For the financial support for copyediting
this volume, we would like to thank the University of Leipzig, the Insti-
tute of Literary Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences, and trans-
form! europe EUPF, the European network for alternative thinking and
political dialogue, which is partially financed through a subsidy from
the European Parliament.
